Minutes after shooting Kroger, filled with fear and chaos

Customers dropped baskets filled with groceries, dropped their bags and hid. Or ran.

That's when the police radios rang and 911 called a flooded dispatch – the start of a frantic hour after one of the last outbreaks of gun violence in a public place that left two African Americans dead in the hands of an alleged white assailant.

For now, this 12-year-old boy has had to find his way to safety.

14:54: "Be notified during the day, in response to a shooting at 9080 Taylorsville Road at Kroger.

Maurice Stallard (Photo: Kellie Watson provided)

As the gunman headed for the glass doors, workers and customers barricaded themselves behind displays and in back rooms.

"I was scared," said a cashier. "I immediately went back to the locker room and locked the door. I started calling and texting: "Someone just opened fire in the store".

14:57: "Know that someone is still shooting."

Outside, the violence has not stopped.

Bush shot Vickie Lee Jones, 67, according to police. The retired director of the Veterans Hospital has collapsed on the sidewalk. Like Stallard, she was hit from behind.

Vickie Jones (left) with her nephew, Kevin Gunn. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Gunn)

The bullets grazed cars and broke the window on the passenger side of an SUV. The envelopes touched the asphalt. Customers hid.

Ed Harrell was in the parking lot and was waiting for his wife when he heard the shots. He squeezed his revolver and squatted next to his car. He watched a man cross the parking lot with a gun on his side and shouted, asking what was going on.

The gunman saw that Harrell had a rifle, he said and shouted, "Do not shoot me, I will not shoot you, the whites do not shoot the whites."

Harrell is hidden behind a car. On the parking lot, Kelly Pham, owner of D Spa & Nails, saw the suspect shoot several times.

A few doors down, Heather Sapp was looking out the window of the Cordial Lee shop. She saw the officers arrive.

"One of them pointed his gun at him, and he jumped into the car and left," she said.

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14h57: "He runs, he runs! DOWN Hurstbourne PARKWAY. TO HURSTBOURNE PARK. ON THE POINT TO GIVE RIGHT TO HURSTBOURNE. "

The suspect did not go far.

Just four minutes after the first call to 911, police stopped Bush's car and arrested him. They buckled their hatch with yellow tape and left the driver's door open.

Back in the parking lot, the police surrounded the citizen who had exchanged shots with Bush.

Eric Deacon, a security guard trained at the EMT, was in the store trying to get dressed for his girlfriend. He saw the police unsheathing their weapons against the citizen who defied Bush.

"When they did, he raised his hands and got down," he said.

14:58 "OK, so now they have it." And then: "323, I'll go to Krogers and see if we have any victims."

The immediate danger was gone. But there was still no mention on the radio of the missing boy.

The police swept the shop and the parking lot, not knowing how many people were injured or injured by gunshots.

14:59 "RADIO, I WANT VICTIMS!" Shouted an officer, breathless. "IN THE LOT. GET ME EMS. "

15:01 "345 Radio, I have a person down." Possible 10 to 80 in alley 37 inside the Kroger. "

Five minutes later, their fears were confirmed. Two were dead: Stallard in Lane 37 and Jones in the parking lot.

Deacon, the security guard trained at the EMT, found Jones injured by a bullet and a trail of blood flowing from the back of his head. He was helpless, he could not revive her.

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TO CLOSE

Eric Deacon, a man who was at Jeffersontown Kroger during Wednesday's shooting, describes what he saw on the scene. October 24, 2018
Sam Upshaw Jr., Louisville Courier Journal

Later, his white sneakers protruded from under a sheet.

While the police were working on the scene, the confusion briefly erupted when police thought of a second gunman. They quickly realized that it was the armed citizen who had exchanged shots with Bush.

Inside the store near the pharmacy, police and security officers gathered at the Loss Prevention Office. On the video surveillance monitor, they had an unobstructed view of driveway 37.

It was the first time the police saw the 12-year-old boy. Where was he?

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3:28 pm: "332, the officers have a witness who will look like a young black man. Dressed in a purple shirt, a purple sweatshirt and navy blue pants. Seems to be a minor. "

3:29 pm: "Do you all have the minor?"

3:29 pm: "Negative, we did not … trying to understand. He took off with another witness and escaped safely.

While they were looking for him, the police found employees and customers at the shelter inside. They released employees of the fifth bank who had locked themselves in the cashier's room. They also began questioning the 120 witnesses with whom they would eventually speak that day.

Some said the boy ran after his grandfather was shot. Others said that he had crossed the parking lot towards Starbucks.

3:30 pm: "We are missing a small African-American child, probably 10 to 12 years old, involved or witnessed the incident." And a few minutes later: "While watching the video, it appears the sweatshirt can be a Barret Middle School sweatshirt. Do our best with that. "

An officer suggested that the police call Barret's director to identify him, to find his address.

Police went to video surveillance outside the store.

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15:50: "The youngster seems to be first on the Starbucks side, then goes to Hurstbourne, possibly to the PNC bank."

3:50 pm: "See if they are able to watch a video and watch their cameras to see if the miner is walking around the building at any given time. "

A manicure salon witness told a police officer that the boy was riding in a car.

It was the first clue to where he had gone.

The boy was spotted by Enzo Palombino and his mother, who were attending a working meeting at the nearby Starbucks when the shooting erupted, he told WDRB-TV.

Palombino saw Stallard's grandson running and screaming.

"I look to my left and I see a little boy running like:" Help! Help! & # 39; "he said.

Palombino grabbed his hand and led him to their car.

The 12-year-old was finally able to call his mother.

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The Jeffersontown Kroger reopened Friday morning. (Photo: Sam Upshaw Jr./Courier Journal)

His fear was visible, Palombino told the station: "And I hold it all the time." The boy told his mother – Louisville's equity officer, Kellie Watson – what had happened.

The Palombinos drove him to his grandmother's house, doing their best to comfort him along the way.

He hugged his grandmother when he arrived.

Those with ties to the family said that the parents of the divorced, aged 12, were grateful to the Palombino family for comforting their son and bringing him back to his loved ones.

They were also grateful for the reaction of the police, who eventually learned that he was safe.

16:01: "I am told that the exceptional minor is between 10 and 86 years old and that his mother is at home … we can stop looking for him."

The news then spread to more distant family members.

Jacqueline Ashford, a 63-year-old sister of Stallard, was watching news in her home in Maryland. "I saw that there was a shootout outside Louisville," she explained, explaining that a parent called a few minutes later was crying, "It's Maurice was shot dead. "

She said the boy would be surrounded by love and support as he healed from his experience. The shooting is now the subject of investigation as a possible hate crime.

Jeffersontown Mayor Bill Dieruf said the 12-year-old had not been physically injured, but "he was there and can not ignore what he saw."

Kwane Watson, the boy's father, expressed his admiration for Stallard in a Facebook post on Friday night. He was admired, respected and imitated for his character.

Stallard loved his first grandson more than anything in the world, he wrote, and died protecting him.

In the alley 37.

Editor's note: This story chronicling the 67 minutes that followed the first 911 calls of a Kroger shootout from Jeffersontown was compiled from interviews, police records, media publications social and news accounts.