Shotgun attack leaves 1 dead, 1 injured outside Collegedale Wal-Mart

Collegedale detectives Brandon Allen, left, and Kat Cooper investigate the scene of a double shooting that left one person dead in a parking lot of the Ooltewah Crossing shopping center on Sunday in Collegedale. The red pickup truck was the site of the incident.
Collegedale detectives Brandon Allen, left, and Kat Cooper investigate the scene of a double shooting that left one person dead in a parking lot of the Ooltewah Crossing shopping center on Sunday in Collegedale. The red pickup truck was the site of the incident.
photo Collegedale detectives Brandon Allen, left, and Kat Cooper investigate the scene of a double shooting that left one person dead in a parking lot of the Ooltewah Crossing shopping center on Sunday in Collegedale. The red pickup truck was the site of the incident.

Rolly Lagutin was bending down to put his 15-month-old grandson into a car seat Sunday when he heard the first bang.

Not thinking much of it, he carried on, assuming someone's tire must have blown out. But with the second bang, he looked up and saw a shotgun-wielding man just steps away from him in the parking lot of a Collegedale strip mall.

"Then I was really worried," he said. "I thought he was going to shoot us."

Lagutin grabbed the baby, who was screaming by that time, and fled for the nearby Game Stop video game store, where he and his family took cover in a back room.

Collegedale police say a man shot a woman he knew with a shotgun in one or both legs shortly before 2:20 Sunday afternoon in the parking lot of the Ooltewah Crossing shopping center on Reagan Lane, just across from Wal-Mart. He then turned the gun and shot himself in the head. The man died there in the parking lot and his body was carried off about 4 p.m. The woman was taken to Erlanger for treatment.

Tonya Sadler, public information officer for the Collegedale Police Department, said in a news release the man drove to the shopping complex to speak to the woman, who works at one of the retail stores.

Witnesses told the Times Free Press they saw the man and woman arguing in the parking lot. Sadler said only that "unknown exchanges occurred" before the man shot the woman, then himself.

Police had not released the shooter's and victim's names late Sunday night. The female victim survived surgery, though her condition was unknown.

Sunday's shooting was the second time in less than a week that an armed man in the area shot a woman in public before turning the gun on himself.

On Thursday evening, 36-year-old Christopher Eric Whitmore drove to the Shell Super Cheap Market in Varnell, Ga., where he confronted his estranged lover, 27-year-old Melissa Ball.

Walking up to Ball's Ford Focus at the gas pumps, Whitmore pulled a handgun and shot his 8-year-old son, Grayden Whitmore, who was in the back seat. Then he shot Ball before turning the gun on himself. All three died.

Shortly after the incident Sunday, onlookers gathered behind yellow crime scene tape that was flapping in the wind.

The shooter's red GMC Sierra pickup had a large gash in the driver's side door. Blood pooled beneath the truck and a Corvette parked in the next space.

As families went about their weekly supermarket trips, some Wal-Mart employees decked in navy blue vests and shirts congregated in the parking lot, waiting for news.

Lagutin, a local doctor, said he was terrified during the incident and some of the details remained fuzzy. But later, after things had calmed down, his mind still raced.

"Now I'm just scared of what could have happened," he said. "Because when I was running, he was right behind me."

It was just an ordinary Sunday. He and his family had just finished eating lunch at a Japanese restaurant in the strip mall. They had plans to play golf after lunch.

"I can't believe at that moment, they were loading the baby in the car," said his daughter, Lyn Darling.

Lagutin's other grandson was hit by shotgun pellets or some other debris during the incident. Though he was hit from his legs to his chest, paramedics found no injuries on 14-year-old Hunter Price.

"It hurt a little bit up here," he said, pointing to his chest, "but it wasn't that bad."

Contact staff writer Kevin Hardy at khardy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.

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