Shooting at Mississippi Walmart Leaves 2 People Dead, Officer Injured

Customers shop at Walmart store in Chicago, Illinois on Jan. 11, 2018. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Two people were shot and killed inside a Mississippi Walmart on July 30, according to CNN and other news outlets.

The gunfire broke out inside a Walmart in Southaven, located near Memphis, Tennessee.

ABC News reported that one officer was injured and two were killed.

Carlos Odom, a customer, while walking out of the Walmart, “heard a bunch of gunshots. Pop pop pop pop -- more than a dozen shots,” he told the news outlet.

He added: “I just thought ‘Run!’ and ran to my car. This is crazy. The world is crazy nowadays.”

The suspected shooter was shot by an officer, and they were hospitalized in unknown condition, DeSoto County Sheriff Bill Rasco told WATN.

The names of the victims killed haven’t been released.

A motive for the shooting isn’t clear.

Facts About Crime in the United States

Violent crime in the United States has fallen sharply over the past 25 years, according to both the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).

The rate of violent crimes fell by 49 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the FBI’s UCR, which only reflects crimes reported to the police.

The violent crime rate dropped by 74 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the BJS’s NCVS, which takes into account both crimes that have been reported to the police and those that have not.

“From 1993 to 2017, the rate of violent victimization declined 74 percent, from 79.8 to 20.6 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older,” the U.S. Department of Justice stated.

Both studies are based on data up to and including 2017, the most recent year for which complete figures are available.

The FBI recently released preliminary data for 2018. According to the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January to June 2018, violent crime rates in the United States dropped by 4.3 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2017.