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2021 Collierville Kroger shooting

The 2021 Collierville Kroger shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on September 23, 2021, at a Kroger grocery store in Collierville, Tennessee. One person was killed and 14 others were injured before the gunman, identified as 29-year-old Uk Thang, committed suicide by gunshot. Thang was working at the store as a third-party vendor. It was the second shooting in 2021 to occur at a Kroger-owned property; the first occurred at a King Soopers store in Boulder, Colorado, in March.

Shooting
On the day of the shooting, the gunman, Uk Thang, got into an altercation with another Kroger employee and was asked to leave at 7:00 a.m. He returned to his apartment and later left at 12:30 p.m. After calling his brother at 1:30 p.m. to tell him he would never see him again, Thang returned to the store and opened fire with two pistols and a rifle. Thang walked to the nearby Deli area and began opening fire. He injured two women in the Deli area. At this point, multiple people ran out of the store through the entrance Thang entered from. He fired shots at them and hit no one. Thang walked north through the store. In the south exit vestibule, 70-year-old Olivia King struggles to escape while pushing a cart. Thang walked by the exit and fired at her and another employee. He fatally wounded King and injured the employee as they both tried to get out of the store. The manager Thang had the altercation with earlier that day allowed several people to enter his office. Thang walked up to the office door and fired shots at it, which hit the manager in the jaw. Thang tried kicking open the door but failed as the manager was holding the door closed. Thang fired more shots at the door before leaving. Thang reloaded his ATI Omni pistol and shot a woman at the self-checkout aisles. Thang rushed to the back of the store and shot a man at an employees-only area. Several people tried leaving the store through the back of the store, but Thang followed them. At some point before, Thang dropped his ATI Omni pistol in the back of the store as the CCTV thereon only shows him with two guns at this point. Thang exited the store and tried using his Kel-Tec CMR-30 rifle to shoot at people to his right. However, the gun refused to work, possibly because of a mechanical failure. A cashier told reporters that Thang came in while she was working and began to open fire almost immediately. He shot a coworker and a customer in front of the employee. Authorities began receiving 9-1-1 calls at around 1:30 p.m. reporting an active shooter situation at the Kroger store. He was later found dead at the back of the store from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. ==Victims==
Victims
A 70-year-old female customer, Olivia King was killed, and 13 others – ten employees and three customers – were wounded in the shooting. One other individual checked into a hospital due to an anxiety attack. Regional One Health received nine patients, with four of them in critical condition. Methodist Le Bonheur received two patients; one underwent surgery, while the other was in stable condition. Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis received a twelfth patient. ==Perpetrator==
Perpetrator
Police identified the shooter as 29-year-old Uk Thang (October 17, 1991 − September 23, 2021), who had been living in Collierville since the summer of 2020 and was working as a third-party vendor at the Kroger store's sushi outlet. He had been asked to leave his job on the morning of the shooting. According to family friends and acquaintances, Thang was the son of refugees from Myanmar who settled in Utah and then Nashville. Neighbors described not knowing Thang, who they only saw coming and going from the apartment complex they lived in. Thang legally purchased the guns used in the shooting within the 18 months preceding the incident. ==Investigation==
Investigation
Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, the Memphis Police Department, and members of the FBI and ATF, responded to the store. Thang's vehicle was searched in the parking lot, and a bomb robot was used to remove a box from inside. Police later seized electronics and other evidence at Thang's home in an apartment complex. ==Aftermath==
Aftermath
Bailey Station Elementary School and other local schools were put on lockdown as a precautionary measure due to the shooting, but it was lifted later in the day. Students at the high school were asked to wear maroon on September 24 as a sign of solidarity to the school and the town. Collierville city officials were offered support from Boulder, Colorado, where a mass shooting at a King Soopers store had occurred in March. Kroger offered counseling services for its employees almost immediately after the shooting and has closed the store until the investigation is concluded. After over a month of remodeling, Kroger announced that the store would reopen on November 10 with improved security. ==See also==
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