Walmart shooting horror as young girl gunned down in South Carolina store

A young girl was injured and another person was arrested after a shooting at a Walmart store in Aiken, South Carolina, according to reports.

The incident took place at the Walmart store on the 2000 block of Whiskey Road at 7:34 p.m. on Wednesday, a dispatch issued by authorities and mentioned by WRDW-TV said.

The Aiken Department of Public Safety wrote on Twitter: “ADPS Officers are on-scene at Walmart on Whiskey Road in reference to a shooting incident. There is no danger to the public at this time. The shooter is in custody.”

At the scene of the incident, officers found only one victim, a young girl with a gunshot wound, and gave her aid until the arrival of EMS. She was later transported to a local hospital.

WRDW-TV reported that an Aiken Department of Public Safety officer said that, while it’s too early to say, they believe that the attack wasn’t targeted. The suspect is in custody but their name has not been revealed.

An eyewitness described to the television channel the chaotic scene of the incident. The man, who said he chased the shooter out of the store, said that when they heard the gunshot, his wife initially thought someone had shattered some glass.

The man then saw the young girl who was injured lying down and several people around her, who directed him towards the shooter. He then chased the man out of the store, saying that he was not armed at the time. When he went back to the young girl, she was being lifted up in a stretcher.

Authorities have not identified either the suspect or the young victim. An investigation into the shooting is currently ongoing. Newsweek contacted the Aiken Department of Public Safety for comment by email on Thursday.

WJBF reports that the Walmart store where the incident took place was shut down for investigation.

Grocery Store Shootings

It’s not the first time that a Walmart store happens to be the scene of a shooting. In 2022, a gunman killed six people at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia.

There were a few incidents in Walmart stores this year too. On May 4, an off-duty Walmart employee fatally shot a customer who was trying to break up a fight between two workers inside a Lauderdale Lakes Walmart, in Florida. In January, a former Walmart employee opened fire and injured one of his ex-co-workers at a store in Evansville, Indiana. The 25-year-old “active shooter” was taken down by police on the scene.

A study by the organization Guns Down America released in 2022 found that there were a total of 536 incidents of gun violence at 12 of the nation’s largest grocery store chains between January 1, 2020, and November 22, 2022—the date of the Chesapeake Walmart shooting.

Walmart had 363 gun incidents resulting in 112 deaths—the highest number of gun violence-related episodes reported by all grocery stores studied by Guns Down America. It was followed by Kroger, with 45 gun incidents and 20 gun deaths, Food Lion, with 32 gun incidents and 21 gun deaths, and Safeway, with 27 gun incidents and 11 gun deaths.

Update 6/8/23, 3:45 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include more context to the story.