Three dead in murder-suicide shooting outside Walmart in Duncan, Oklahoma, police say
Police have identified three people killed in a murder-suicide shooting in the parking lot of a Walmart in Oklahoma.
The gunman killed a man and woman inside a car before fatally shooting himself Monday morning, police say. The shooting occurred at the Walmart in Duncan, Oklahoma, a town of about 22,000residents located 80 miles south of Oklahoma City, according to a city news release.
The man and woman had been in the Walmart Money Center and returned to the car when the shooter opened fire, Duncan Police Chief Danny Ford said in a news conference. Then he killed himself, Ford said.
The shooter was Wbiliado R. Varela Jr., police said. The people inside the car were identified as Rebecca N. Vescio-Varela and Aubrey P. Perkins. Varela and Vescio-Varela were married, but she was in a “dating relationship” with Perkins, Lt. John Byers said in a news conference Tuesday morning.
Police called it a domestic dispute.
“It’s a tragedy for everyone,” Byers said.
Vescio-Varela was an employee at Walmart, but she wasn’t scheduled to work at the time of the shooting, police said.
“It makes people very fearful,” Ford said during a news conference on Monday. “It puts everybody on edge.”
In a statement Monday, the company reiterated that this was not an “active shooter situation.”
“As this is an active police investigation, we are currently referring additional questions to law enforcement and assisting however possible,” Walmart told McClatchy in an email. “This was an isolated incident in the parking lot and was not an active shooter situation.”
Nearby schools were put on lockdown, but that has since been lifted, Duncan Public Schools wrote on Facebook.
The shooting comes just three months after police say Patrick Crusius, 21, walked into a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and opened fire, killing 22, The Star-Telegram reported. Another 25 people were wounded, USA Today reported. The El Paso Walmart reopened on Thursday, according to CBS.
Video from KFOR showed investigators gathered around a car in the parking lot with a large crime scene cordoned off with yellow police tape.
Duncan City Manager Kimberly Meek wrote in a news release that there no longer was a threat to the community.
“Our prayers are with the victims, their families and with our law enforcement community as they investigate,” Meek wrote on Facebook.
“It’s regrettable,” Ford said. “There’s not much you can say to families with this kind of loss except, ‘We’re sorry.’ ”
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 10:43 AM.