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Caitlin Gibson/The Washington Post - A sheriff's office mobile command unit is seen in the parking lot outside the entrance to the Costco in Sterling on Wednesday.
By Caitlin Gibson and Matt Zapotosky, E-mail the writers
A Loudoun County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a woman who came at him with a knife at a Sterling Costco Wednesday afternoon, authorities said, sending confused and frightened shoppers and employees ducking behind cash registers and rushing out of the suburban store.
Authorities, who said deputies had responded to a report of a disorderly person, did not immediately identify the woman. They said deputies first deployed a taser to subdue her, and that one deputy fired when she continued to advance. A second deputy was wounded, apparently when a bullet ricocheted, but is expected to recover, officials said.
Renee Haber, a front end manager at the store near the busy intersection of Cascades Parkway and Route 7, said the incident started when a woman involved in food preparation became agitated and began to act erratically as her shift was ending. She said the woman, who had been serving pizza earlier in the day, began saying “crazy things” and seemed concerned about the number of servings in a pizza box.
As she was moving away from her serving station, Haber said, the woman grabbed a knife from another station and was making “strange movements.”
“She was frightening her supervisor,” Haber said. She said workers there called police.
Two deputies arrived at the store just after 3 p.m., Loudoun Sheriff Michael Chapman said. When they encountered the woman near the rear of the store she was armed with a knife and may also have had scissors, he said.
“Preliminary indications are that she came at the deputies with a knife,” Chapman said. When a taser did not stop the woman, he said, a deputy had to “resort” to firing.
“It’s a tragic situation,” Chapman said. “I feel for everybody involved.”
Chapman said investigators are interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance tapes but added that he feels “confident in the way our deputies responded.”
Nora LaTeef said she had just sat down to enjoy a berry smoothie at Costco’s food court — having finished up her weekly grocery shopping with her parents — when three uniformed sheriff’s deputies burst into the store shouting “Where is Linda?” The deputies first headed toward what appeared to be an employee lounge, then dashed down the aisles, crouching as they moved, LaTeef said.
LaTeef said she could tell the deputies “were coming in for action,” and she told her mother, Nadia LaTeef, they should probably leave. But as her father, Victor LaTeef, went to fill up his soda, LaTeef said, five muffled gunshots rang out.
In an instant, she said, hundreds of employees and customers alike were screaming, “Get out of the Costco! Get out of Costco!” and stampeding for the exit.
Peggy Waters, of Cascades, said she was in line at the big box store with her 22-year-old son when she saw deputies run in with hands on their holstered guns. They first jiggled a door on what she thought was an office, and then headed down a main aisle to the back of the store.
Waters heard was she thought was four shots, her son heard five, she said.
“I had no idea what was going on,” she said.
Some people crouched behind the cash registers but most ran for the nearby doors, Waters said. “I said ‘Son I think we better get out of here,’” she said, and they went to the parking lot.
Robert Krause, of Ashburn, said he was near the front of the store when he heard “about five” pops but he didn’t immediately recognize the sounds as gunfire.
“Everyone was running out of the building not knowing what was going on,” Krause said. ”I was a little scared so I got out of there pretty quick.”
Sheriff’s officials said the wounded deputy was being treated for a gunshot to the leg but is expected to recover.
Krause said he later saw the injured deputy being carried from the store. ”He looked like he was on his cell phone as he was being carried out so I hope he’s ok.” |
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发表于 2013-5-29 12:39
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发表于 2013-5-29 13:29
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