Three people, including the sheriff’s assistant, were injured on Saturday in a shooting at a Walmart in Virginia, officials said.
The deputy, who was not identified, and two Walmart security officials were hospitalized with serious but life-threatening injuries, Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman told a news conference.
The suspect, also unidentified, was taken into custody in Fairfax County after a vehicle chase, he said. He was hospitalized because he was shot in the shooting, sheriff officials said.
It all started when Walmart security officials at Dulles Crossing Plaza in Sterling, Virginia, “escorted” the suspect to the office after he allegedly stole items inside the store, they said.
The two officials, described by officials as loss prevention agents, called on deputies to arrest him for alleged theft, Chapman said.
When the two policemen tried to arrest the suspect, he resisted, took a gun from his waist and opened fire inside the security office, he said.
“He ended up hitting the loss prevention officers once on each leg, as far as we know,” said the sheriff. “One of our two deputies was shot and hit several times.”
The other officer responded, hitting the man, but it was not enough to stop him from running into the parking lot, where he found a pickup truck with the keys inside and left, Chapman said.
The officers chased him and officers from other agencies, including the Virginia State Police, helped, the sheriff’s officials said. At one point, authorities lost the suspect and a police helicopter was called in to help locate him, Chapman said.
The man was eventually found after he “crashed” the truck and was taken into custody before being hospitalized, the sheriff’s officials said.
