Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said management wanted the man to leave the store prior to the shooting.
“We do not know exactly why right now they wanted that individual gone,” he said. “I can tell you that the individual was covered pretty heavily with a face mask and other things like that.”
A security guard approached the man and asked him to leave.
“At that point the individual produced a handgun, and the security officer produced his handgun and fired rounds,” Streck said.
The man was taken to the hospital and is responsive. The sheriff said he has not been cooperative.
The man did not fire any shots during the incident.
“We do not know if the gun malfunctioned, or it didn’t have a round in it at this point,” Streck said.
The shooting took place close to the store’s entrance.
A 911 caller told Montgomery County Regional Dispatch she was near the registers when she heard eight to 10 shots, according to dispatch records.
She said there were two security guards in the front entrance area with a man.
“He’s still fighting them even though he’s been shot,” she added.
Another 911 caller reported hearing six to eight shots before he headed to the back of the store.
“We have a decent amount of witnesses that witnessed the whole event,” the sheriff said. “They all agree that the individual who was shot pulled the weapon first. They believe he tried to fire the gun.”
Between the number of employees at Kroger and Halloween morning shoppers, Streck said it was a chaotic scene and took a while to settle things down.
“In this day and age when you start hearing shots you don’t know if you’re in an active shooter situation, so it just puts people in a higher state of panic,” he said.
No other injuries were reported.
“In reality we were very lucky that the security officer did not hit anybody else or that the suspect did not hit anybody,” Streck said.
The security guard is from a third-party company that contracts with Kroger. Streck said the sheriff’s office has requested any video that the security company has of the incident. Kroger is cooperating with investigators.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit is continuing to investigate.
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