Gunman identified in Walmart distribution center shooting that killed 2, injured 6 in California

RED BLUFF, Calif. — Two people were fatally shot and six others were wounded Saturday at a Walmart distribution center in Red Bluff, California, a hospital official said.

Update 9:37 p.m. EDT June 28: The deceased gunman in Saturday’s shooting has been identified by authorities as Louis Lane, a former employee of the Walmart distribution center in Red Bluff, California.

Lt. Yvette Borden, a spokeswoman for the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office, said Lane, 31, worked at the distribution center in February 2019 but was let go for failing to show up for his shift, The New York Times reported.

Borden said Walmart employees told investigators they saw Lane drive around the center’s parking lot four times before crashing into the building and opening fire. He was shot and killed by a responding officer several minutes later in what Borden called “quite a bit of gunfire,” the Times reported.

Meanwhile, responding officers also found distribution center employee Martin Haro-Lozano badly wounded and transported him in their own vehicle to a hospital, where he died. A total of six people were taken to hospitals with injuries ranging from minor to moderate, the Times reported.

A motive for the shooting has not yet been determined, Borden said.

Update 9:35 p.m. EDT June 27: Two people are dead after the shooting at the Walmart distribution center in northern California, a hospital official said. A man with “AR-type weapon” opened fire about 3:30 p.m., authorities said.

Four people were injured and were in fair condition, Allison Hendrickson, a spokesperson for St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Red Bluff, told The New York Times.

A Walmart employee, Franklin Lister, 51, said he had just clocked into his afternoon shift when he heard another employee shouting: “Active gunfire! Active shooter!”

Lister told the newspaper he had seen blood dripping from his colleague’s arm.

“That’s when I realized it wasn’t a drill,” Lister said.

Original report: According to witnesses and employees, the shooting occurred at 3:30 p.m. during a shift change, the Red Bluff Daily News reported.

According to authorities, the gunman drove into the distribution center south of Red Bluff and began shooting, The Associated Press reported.

The man was shot in the chest around 3:45 p.m., dispatchers told the Redding Record Searchlight.

“There was an active shooter, he was shot, last I heard he was on his way to the hospital,” Red Bluff City Manager Rick Crabtree told KRCR-TV.

Scott Thammakhanty, an employee at the facility’s receiving center, told the Redding Record Searchlight he heard the shooter fire from what he believed was a semi-automatic weapon.

“It went on and on -- I don’t even know how many times he fired,” Thammakhanty told the newspaper. “I just know it was a lot.”

Red Bluff is located about 120 miles north of Sacramento.

Lt. Yvette Borden, acting public information officer for the Tehama County Sheriff’s Department, said her department could not confirm how many people were injured or if anyone was in custody, the Daily News reported.

Cox Media Group