Suspect in Colorado Walmart Shooting Is Arrested, ID’d

By Jack Phillips
November 2, 2017 Last Updated: November 2, 2017
Scott Ostrem, 47, described by police as a person of interest in a shooting that took place in a Walmart in Thornton, Colorado, on Nov. 1, 2017. . (Thornton Police Department/via REUTERS)

Police have arrested a suspect in the shooting that left three people dead inside a Colorado Walmart on Wednesday night.

Two men and a woman were killed in what officials said was a “random” shooting.

The gunman, identified as 47-year-old Scott Ostrem, was arrested and taken into custody on Thursday morning, the Thornton Police Department confirmed. Before his capture, the department classified him as “armed and dangerous” while on the run.

The suspect was captured on surveillance camera footage wearing a reddish-maroon shirt, jeans, and a dark jacket. He walked in the front door of the Thornton Walmart and opened fire on shoppers with a handgun. Then he exited and got into a red Mitsubishi Mirage and drove away.

It’s unclear if the attack is terrorism-related, police said, although they believe it is not.

Thornton Police Department spokesman Victor Aliva told reporters, citing witness accounts, that the attack appeared “random.”

“What we have determined is that it is random as of right now,” Aliva said, according to Reuters. “As witnesses stated, the person came in and just shot towards a group.”

A Walmart customer, Aaron Stephens, 44, of Thornton, told Reuters he was inside paying for groceries at a self-checkout stand when he heard gunshots and the sound of ricocheting bullets.

“The employees started screaming and the customers started screaming” as people began to flee the store, he recounted. “I ran out, too, because I didn’t want to get shot.”

Stephens said he did not see where the shooting had come from and did not see anyone struck by bullets.

Local NBC television affiliate 9News reported that a woman whose son was in the Walmart had told her that he had heard about 30 gunshots and was still inside.

A video posted on Twitter showed the Walmart, which is in a large complex of big-box stores and other retail outlets adjacent to U.S. Interstate 25, apparently empty except for police officers with guns drawn.

Reuters contributed to this report.