Police say they have apprehended the man who allegedly opened fire at a Wal-Mart in Thornton, Colorado, on Wednesday night, killing three.
Scott Ostrem, 47, was picked up near his Denver home after a tip from a citizen who noticed his red Mitsubishi Mirage, Thornton police said Thursday morning. The capture marked an end to a manhunt that began shortly after a suspect opened fire in the suburban Denver store, calmly and apparently at random, then turned around and walked out.
“From the witness accounts, he nonchalantly walked into the front of the business through the south door and just raised the firearm and began firing,” police spokesman Victor Avila told reporters at a late-night news conference.
Surveillance videos caught a crisp image of the the suspect, which police released on social media, describing him as a person of interest.
On Wednesday, police responded about 6:10 p.m. local time to a report of multiple shots fired in the Wal-Mart about 10 miles north of downtown Denver.
Upon arriving, police discovered three people with gunshot wounds toward the front of the store – two men, who were killed at the scene, and a third victim, a woman. The woman was taken to a hospital, where she died, police said. The victims’ identities have not been released. No other injuries were reported.
The police spokesman said investigators do not know whether the three victims were together. “They were in the same area. Whether they knew each other, we don’t know,” Avila said.
Police and witnesses described a chaotic and confusing scene at the store as the shooting started, prompting hundreds of customers – some of them who pulled their own concealed weapons – to try to flee the store. Once police determined that the shooter was no longer at the scene, Wal-Mart employees began reviewing hours of surveillance video to identify a possible suspect, Avila said at a Thursday morning press conference.
“It took a while because it was so many people,” he said. “It was mass chaos in there.”
[ Gunman ‘nonchalantly’ enters Wal-Mart in Colorado, ‘randomly’ kills 3]
Guadalupe Perez was inside with her son Erick. “We were just renting movies, and we just heard this popping noise,” Perez told Reuters. “Then I turned around and I just see all the people walking falling down because they were really scared.”
Jay Quawrn Thompson, an 18-year-old Wal-Mart employee, was working in the back of the store when he heard the shots. “A lady came running back, screaming about the shots,” Thompson told the Denver Post. “I got her out.”
“I immediately froze because I didn’t know what to think or what was going on,” Aaron Stephens told CBS 4. “Then I heard two more shots, and then I hit the ground because I didn’t know if there were going to be bullets flying. And then I hear three more shots and I got up. Ran out as fast as I could. I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Las Vegas happening at Wal-Mart in Thornton.’ And I freaked.”
According to Fox 31, 48 witnesses were taken by bus from the crime scene to the police department.
The Wal-Mart remained closed as of Thursday morning, Thornton Mayor Heidi Williams said.
Avila said Ostrem was taken into custody without incident. Officers pulled over his car with the help of the SWAT team, which employed flash grenades as a distraction technique, he said. Ostrem has a minimal criminal history, he said, and authorities have not yet identified a motive.
According to Bloomberg News, more than 200 violent crimes were reported in the country’s 4,500 Wal-Mart locations in 2016. In one memorable case, a store employee took two co-workers hostage in Amarillo, Texas., in June 2016. The suspect was killed when the SWAT officers raided the building.
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