[Updated 11/2/17, 8:45 a.m.] Two men and a woman are dead following a shooting at a Walmart in Thornton Wednesday night. Colorado authorities have arrested 47-year-old Scott Ostrem as the suspect.
UPDATE: Walmart homicide suspect Scott Ostrem has been taken into custody
— Thornton Police Dept (@ThorntonPolice)
According to witness reports, multiple gunshots were fired before shoppers began to flee the building en masse.
"I just froze because I didn't know what it was at first," said Aaron Stephens, who was grocery shopping with a friend when the shooting began.
"It was extreme terror. It was frightening. I was scared," he said. "I've never been that close to gunshots."
When asked what was going through his mind when he was running from the building, Stephens said, "I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die."
"It felt surreal, like this could not be happening and yet the shots continued," said Hayne Rucker, Stephens' friend. "Very quickly you realize that it is happening and you'd best act."
According to the police, Ostrem walked into the building, then began firing randomly into the crowd near the cash registers. He then fled in a red Mitsubishi.
"We dropped the groceries and just ran as fast as we could, panic-stricken, out of the store as bullets continued to sound in the background," said Rucker.
Police are not treating the shooting as a terror-related incident. No other information on Ostrem's motives is available at this time.
