A grocery store cashier has been shot dead and three others have been left injured when a customer opened fire after being told to wear a face mask.
The incident took place at a Georgia supermarket on Monday, June 14, just after 1 PM, according to local reports cited by Indy100, when a cashier at Big Bear supermarket asked the customer to "please pull up his mask."
"There was some confrontation, argument [...] in reference to the wearing of masks, at which time the subject pulled out a weapon and shot the cashier," DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox said in a statement.
Watch a news report about the incident below:The suspect has now been identified as 30-year-old Victor Lee Tucker, Jr. who went on to leave the store without making his purchase.
He returned immediately, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), and "walked directly back to the cashier, pulled out a handgun and shot her."
The GBI said in a press release that the victim, whose identity has not yet been made public, was pronounced dead at Grady Memorial Hospital, where Tucker was later transported in a stable condition.
The sheriff said that shots were exchanged between the suspect and a reserve deputy who worked as a part-time security guard in the supermarket.
According to People, the deputy "was attempting to intervene while working off-duty at the supermarket," officials said.
CNN reports that the reserve deputy joined the reserve unit after serving for 30 years in the force.
The deputy was struck twice by gunfire, Maddox revealed, but he was wearing a bulletproof vest and later transported to a nearby health center for treatment.
Tucker was arrested as he attempted to flee the scene through the front door, and Indy100 reports that he and the injured deputy are in stable condition.
The GBI revealed that another cashier was shot, and she was treated for her injury at the scene.
An independent investigation is now being conducted into the incident, the agency has revealed, and CNN reports that it is also being investigated by DeKalb County Police.
