An employee at a Walmart in Georgia fatally shot two co-workers and critically wounded a third before being arrested in South Carolina early Friday morning, authorities said.
The shooting, described by the Newton County Sheriff’s Office as a “targeted” incident, unfolded in the early hours of Friday.
The Walmart Supercenter in Covington, just southeast of Atlanta, was closed to the public at the time of the shooting, officials confirmed.
The suspect, a male employee, exited the building around 1:30 a.m. when he “retrieved a firearm and returned inside,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
When he came back in, he located a male employee within the store and fatally shot him, officials said.
He then shot a second employee outside the store. That victim, another male employee, was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
After the shooting, the suspect reportedly went to a residence on Emerson Trail, about 2 miles away, where he located “another acquaintance and fatally shot them.”
That victim has since been identified by local media as 19-year-old Akeela Clarke, a female Walmart employee.
The suspect then fled the scene but was later located in Aiken, S.C., about 135 miles east of Covington. He was arrested by South Carolina troopers and Aiken County sheriff’s deputies around 4 a.m., reported Columbia’s CBS affiliate WLTX.
After a brief standoff with law enforcement, the suspect was treated for a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to local station WJBF. His condition was not immediately clear.
