Police are searching for a suspect after two people were shot and killed in a crowded Walmart parking lot early Sunday evening.
Just after 5:10 p.m. in South Anchorage, Alaska, police responded to a report of shots fired outside a store and found the bodies of a man and a woman.
Sunday’s incident occurred on Old Seward Highway at 88th Street just south of Dimond Center Mall, prompting a large response that included multiple police departments as the store was cordoned off. Local media reports said investigators found a firearm at the scene and police were searching for the suspect.
The incident comes amid a spate of gun violence across the country, sparking a heated debate over gun control, and politicians seemingly unable to answer how to address the issue.Violence ravaging American cities has prompted multiple countries to issue warnings to citizens considering traveling to the United States.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a database that collects information on mass shootings across the United States, 38,130 people have died from gunshot wounds so far this year, but this number also includes suicides and accidental deaths. ing.
said Sean Keating, Anchorage Police Department (APD) Crime Scene Team Leader. Anchorage Daily News Police say they have begun searching for the person responsible for Sunday’s double murder. Fortunately, more people weren’t hurt because the store was “very populated and it happened right outside the front door. It’s just insane.”
Details of the case remain sparse, and police have not yet released a description of the suspect or the identity of the victim. Investigators plan to comb through surveillance footage inside the store in hopes of catching the suspect on camera.
newsweek has contacted APD via email for further information and comment.
A statement from APD released Sunday night said, “The circumstances of the incident are under investigation, but officers have reason to believe this is an isolated incident. No arrests have been made at this time and the investigation is ongoing. “We are aware of this,” he said.
Officers asked anyone with information about the incident to call police dispatch at 3-1-1 (select option 1) or 907-786-8900 (select option 0).
Walmart has thousands of stores across the U.S., at the latest count of about 4,717, according to figures compiled by Statista. That means, statistically speaking, the chain is occasionally the scene of a mass shooting.
Just after Christmas in 2022, a fight broke out at a Walmart in Alabama and two shoppers were shot and killed.
In January 2023, three people were shot and killed as they loaded groceries into a car in a Walmart parking lot in Illinois.
Updated November 20, 2023, 14:422 AM ET: This article has been updated with additional information throughout.
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