A man in Ohio entered Giant Eagle supermarket and fatally shot his ex-wife who had been working there before turning the gun on himself.
Police in the city of North Olmsted said after responding to a call on Sunday morning they discovered the bodies of Susan Peterson, 63, and Bernard Edward Smith, 60, on the supermarket floor.
They were said to be married to each other but divorced in 2004. The mayor of North Olmsted, Nicole Dailey Jones, said the incident was being treated as a murder-suicide.
North Olmsted is a city with a population of around 30,000 people just southwest of Cleveland.
A man in Ohio entered Giant Eagle supermarket and fatally shot his ex-wife who had been working there before turning the gun on himself. Pictured is the scene on Sunday
Pictured is the Giant Eagle supermarket in North Olmsted, described by the city’s mayor as a pillar of the community
Dailey Jones said ‘Giant Eagle has been a pillar in the North Olmsted community for many years.’
The shooting happened at the Giant Eagle grocery store on the 27000 block of Lorain Avenue in North Olmstead at around 9.30am on Sunday, police said.
Members of both the North Olmsted Fire and Police Departments.
Peterson, who was said to be from Olmsted township, had been working at the supermarket for almost four years and was one of more than 60 other employees in the store at the time.
‘Our officers responded on scene within a minute entered the building immediately and encountered two individuals down on the ground,’ he said.
The North Olmsted Police Chief Bob Wagner said during a press conference on Sunday that there were also around 200 shoppers at the time.
North Olmsted police said in a press release the incident was being investigated as a murder-suicide
The North Olmsted Police Chief Bob Wagner said during a press conference on Sunday that there were also around 200 shoppers at the time of the shooting
‘This isn’t a Giant Eagle problem, this isn’t a city of North Olmsted problem. This type of incident can happen anywhere, any time,’ said Wagner.
He also said both were married at one point in time and had separated in 2004 in a way that had not been ‘amicable’, which may have led to the incident.
‘Our officers train for this type of thing, as the mayor said, we went through training which was identical to this type of situation earlier this year,’ he said.
‘We are grateful for the quick response of local authorities and are committed to providing all available resources to law enforcement to assist in their ongoing investigation. Our thoughts and hearts are with all of those affected by this terrible tragedy,’ said the supermarket in a statement to 3News.