The Associated Press
May 22, 2001
ROCKFORD -- A suspected shoplifter at a Wal-Mart store pulled a gun today and shot three employees before she was killed by police, authorities said.

Laura Gassaway, 33, of Rockford, was shot and killed by police, said Rockford Police Sgt. Joe Westmoreland. He said his department previously had arrested her on misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct charges.

``She has had some run-in with the police, but there's been nothing else this violent,'' Westmoreland said.

Gassaway was pregnant at the time of the shooting, Police Chief Jeff Nielsen said at a press conference. But Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said she could not confirm that until an autopsy, scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday.

The incident began when store employees refused to sell Gassaway bullets because she did not have a state firearm owner's identification card, Nielsen said.

Gassaway then began shoplifting other items -- worth about $20 or less -- and was stopped by store security, Westmoreland said. Security officers called police and took the suspect to their office, where she pulled a handgun from inside her pants and opened fire, he said.

``When police heard the shots, they went back to the security room and found her shooting the three employees. That's when they shot her,'' Westmoreland said.

Two officers fired 21 shots at Gassaway, because she would not drop her weapon, Nielsen said at the news conference.

Gassaway was taken to Rockford Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, said Mary Reinke, a hospital spokeswoman.

Wal-Mart employee Fred Hills, 32, of Rockford was treated and released with gunshot wounds to the left knee, Reinke said.

Wal-Mart employees Simon Avery, 26, of Rockford and Ester Daberan, 33, Oregon, were both in fair condition late this afternoon at OSF St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, spokesman Gregory Alford said. He said both had gunshot wounds in the lower leg and neither appeared to have suffered life-threatening injuries.

Two of the employees were Wal-Mart security guards, the other was an assistant manager, said Tom Williams, a spokesman for Wal-Mart at its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. Williams said the incident took place in an area where there were no customers.

``We're just very pleased that apparently none of our three employees who were hurt had life-threatening injuries, and that no customers were hurt. And thank goodness it ended very, very quickly,''

Twenty-one shots? 21 shots?  '...because she would not drop her weapon.'

Guess the Rockford PD doesn't have much of a Pistol Team for this year's competition.

Eric The Hun[>]:)]

"I need an associate to come to housewares with a mop. I need an associate to report to housewares with a mop, please. thank you"

Yeah i saw that news also.

I believe she had 4 shots before the cops took her down.
That 4 shots hit several employee but it's not that serious.

Of course she got killed in the process.
They said she was gonna buy some ammo, but she did not have proper ID's to show them.

In Illinois you have to have a Firearms Owner's Identification Card (FOID) to purchase or own guns and ammo.

Hey Crookshanks...you didn't get your moniker from an old Cary grant movie did you?

Bradd

You need a FOID to buy ammo???  Illinois is f'ed up!  Do they take your thumb print and record what ammo you buy too? They'll probably start doing that here soon.

The FOID didn't stop her from having at least 4 rounds in her gun.

Are all WalMart employees that stupid?
Security should have "patted her down" as they
took her into custody. Duh, she was trying to buy ammo.

Can you say "suicide by cop"?

But you're right, 21 shots?????

Was her brother named Amadou Diallo?

There was a recent thread in rec.guns that stated that the police have a record of about 85-87% misses in actual combat shooting.  That means she got hit about three (3) times.  What do you want to bet?

[sniper]

Where was Mall Ninja when we need him?

Yah, OK, how many of those 21 shots got her in a vital area?

Another example of how Walmart has gone downhill.  If Mall Ninja had been stationed there, he'd a been on her butt like pricetag glue, and quicker than a Clinton orgasm, due to his perp-profiling skills.

Another example of anti's making the world safer for us.[moon][moon][moon][moon][moon]

[red]PRK

Mall Ninja was later found wimpering under the Burger King counter in the food court.  He later claimed to be suffering from a flash back of his days in the New Rock Mall.

21 shots...okay so they can't aim..but hell she deserved every bullet that hit her.

What a lot of people outside of Illinois don't realize is we've had the friggin FOID card since, I believe, 1971. [pissed]