KAUFMAN, Texas — One person was killed and another was critically injured in an apparent murder-suicide attempt at the Walmart in Kaufman on Tuesday morning, March 22, 2016, according to police.
KAUFMAN, Texas — One person was killed and another was critically injured in an apparent murder-suicide attempt at the Walmart in Kaufman on Tuesday morning, March 22, 2016, according to police.
Authorities initially reported two people were killed in the incident but have since said the suspect was flown by CareFlite medical helicopter to a Dallas-area hospital and is listed in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.
Kaufman Police Department Captain Ed Black says the incident began at 9:41 a.m. at the Walmart store in the 300 block of Kings Fort Crossing.
Black says the victim, identified as 59-year-old John D. Morgan, was shot multiple times by 55-year-old Donald Ray Coleman who was wielding a handgun. Coleman turned the gun on himself and shot himself once in the head and was later transported to a Dallas-area hospital in critical condition.
"Kaufman Investigators are looking into reports of an ongoing feud of some sort between the gunman and the victim," stated Black.
Coleman was arrested in January 2016 after a domestic incident with his estranged wife in which he unlawfully restrained her, struck her repeatedly in the face with his hands and a handgun, and threatened to kill her and a friend she had been out with the night before, according to a Gun Barrel City Police Department press release. Coleman discharged a firearm, a Taurus 9mm handgun, into the floor in that incident.
Coleman was released the next day on bonds totaling $22,500. Police believe today's shooting was the culmination of the January incident.
Readers tell inForney.com they were inside the store at the time of the shooting and were quickly evacuated. Those witnesses described hearing four or five gunshots.
“Immediately after I heard them, [approximately] four or five shots, I stepped out into the aisle and saw several employees running toward the lawn and garden department,” Dana Walker told inForney.com. “Almost immediately after, employees and other customers were running towards the exit saying ‘get out someone is shooting.’”
Walker says everyone in the store was told to evacuate over the intercom system.
“It was pretty apparent what was happening, at least for those of us that were close enough to hear the gun shots,” she said.
"We are deeply saddened by the tragic situation that occurred in our store today," Walmart National Media Relations spokesperson Erica Jones told inForney.com. "We're assisting law enforcement however we can and our thoughts are with the families and our associates at this time."
Walmart is expected to remain closed all day.
Kaufman Independent School District campuses were placed on lockdown earlier this morning as the incident occurred. The lockdown order has since been lifted.
This is a developing story.