re: Footage released: Gun store shooter started blasting after asked to unload gun

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“I believe, without a doubt, he was looking to shoot more people until he ran out of bullets,” Sheriff Lopinto said. “I don’t know what was going through Joshua Williams’s mind.”

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A woman who identified herself as Mr. Williams’s aunt said in a Facebook post on Monday that Mr. Williams had struggled to control his anger. She cited systemic racism and his poor upbringing as contributing factors to his state of mind.

“He was sadly out of control of a situation because of a big time anger control issue,” the woman, Janice Hutchinson, wrote. “He was a victim of many social ills that plague too many young Black men who were born and raised in poverty in one of the wealthiest nations in the world.”

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Mr. Williams entered the store at about 3 p.m. on Saturday and looked at ammunition with his brother for about seven minutes, the authorities said. Store employees noticed that Mr. Williams had a gun with an extended magazine protruding from it, according to the sheriff, who said an employee told Mr. Williams that he was required to empty the ammunition or leave the gun in his car.

Mr. Williams begrudgingly began to head toward the exit, but when he reached the door he propped it open with his body and fired a shot into the air, the authorities said. Then, he aimed his gun at Ms. Billiot, the security camera footage shows.

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He fired at least two times at Ms. Billiot, the sheriff said, adding that Ms. Billiot had been standing near the counter at the entrance.

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Next, Mr. Williams exchanged gunfire with the store’s employees, hitting one of them, a man, in the arm before briefly exiting the store with one of his brother’s children, the sheriff said. Mr. Williams then re-entered the business and fired his gun twice at Mr. Fischbach, who had taken cover, and struck him in the back once, the authorities said.

In addition to working at the store, Mr. Fischbach, who went by the name Noah, worked with props and special effects in the film industry, drawing on his knowledge of firearms, his father said in an interview on the day of the shooting.

In the security camera footage, the sheriff said, Mr. Williams’s brother can be seen waving for Mr. Williams to leave the store. A subsequent clip shows Mr. Williams roaming in a hallway inside the building. A third male store employee was shot in the leg by Mr. Williams in another exchange before the gunman was killed in the front parking lot, the authorities said.

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