Home Depot Shooting: Gunman Opens Fire Inside Manhattan Store, Killing Two
A Home Depot shooting has left two dead after a gunman reportedly opened fire inside a Manhattan branch of the hardware store, killing two people.
Police were called to the scene of the store in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood on Sunday afternoon, with reports that someone had opened fire. They found a crowd of close to 15 people running from the store shouting “someone’s shooting, someone’s shooting,” a source at the scene told MSNBC.
Though details of the Home Depot shooting were hazy, witness Emilio Pantero said that both the victim and the shooter worked at the store. He said the shooter was known as a “disgruntled employee.”
“It sounded like really really heavy fireworks,” Pantero said.
“I thought it can’t be happening, it only happens on TV … I can’t be experiencing this.”
“When I ended up next door, that’s when I saw bodies on the floor,” he said.
“At first I thought it was a chandelier dropping,” added another employee, who asked to be identified only as Vonni.
Witnesses to the Home Depot shooting described a chaotic scene, with many sharing pictures of police swarming the building and rushing the victim out in an ambulance.
Shooting inside Home Depot on 23rd. EMS performing CPR on one of the victims. pic.twitter.com/jMcZYrVgWK
— ”Dr.” Ryface (@Ryface) January 25, 2015
View of the scene outside the Manhattan Home Depot where a shooting has reportedly taken place http://t.co/NmH2uvYDJc pic.twitter.com/PLNhEJ7Mct
— Jim Dalrymple II (@JimDalrympleII) January 25, 2015
They’re letting people out of the store now. pic.twitter.com/drUoP1xYoS
— Dave Hashim (@DHASH) January 25, 2015
The shooting also caused a stampede as people tried to get away from the gunfire.
“Everyone was screaming,” a retired NYPD officer who was outside the store told the Daily News.
“There were shots fired. A couple hundred people were running to 7th Ave.”
Sources said the 31-year-old gunman shot a 38-year-old man twice in the face. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, but that man was later declared dead. The gunman was later found dead.
Police have not yet released the identity of the victim or the gunman in the Home Depot shooting. It was not immediately clear if the shooter was considered the second victim or if someone else had been shot, as well.
