Shooting incident at Oklahoma Walmart ended with two dead and the gunman killing himself after being confronted by an armed citizen.

Police respond to the shooting. USA Today.

A shooting incident at the Duncan Oklahoma Wal-Mart ended with two people dead and the gunman shooting himself after being confronted by an armed citizen. USA Today. The gunman shot and killed a man and a woman in the Wal-Mart parking lot and then killed himself. The suspect and the victims all knew each other but police aren't saying what kind of relationship they had. A witness described seeing the gunman fire 9 shots and then was confronted by a civilian with a firearm who demanded he stop shooting. The suspect responded by killing himself. Police would not confirm all the details of the witness statement but did confirm that an armed civilian was involved. 

My Comment:

This probably won't be recorded as a mass shooting as the attacker killed himself before he shot four people but I think this is an example of where an armed citizen made things better. He didn't even have to use his gun, just draw it and the attacker killed himself. 

It's unclear what this gunman's goal was. From what it sounds like this was a domestic situation where the gunman was in a relationship with the woman and the man was her new boyfriend, but that hasn't been confirmed.

If that's the case than the gunman may have finished his murder spree right then and there. But there is no guarantee of that. Given the fact that he had just murdered two people it's very possible that he could have killed more people. Or he could have escaped and cause all kinds of chaos. Plus, the civilian ensured that the man didn't try to shoot it out with police. I think there is a good chance of the civilian stopping more deaths by drawing his gun, and even if he didn't he, at the very least, saved the state the cost of a trial and imprisonment of a very dangerous man. 

I think this is another example of why it's important to have armed civilians. Many times when mass shooters and other criminals are confronted by an armed person they end up killing themselves. This case wasn't the typical mass shooting but I think the gunman figured out that the gig was up and decided to go out on his own terms instead of being detained or shot by the civilian. 

There's an argument to be made that the civilian should have shot the gunman regardless. From what I understand the civilian was in a position of strength with the gun pointed at the gunman's head and the gunman had stopped shooting at that point. But he still had bullets in his gun and if he was able to kill himself he might have been able to shoot the civilian. Not sure if the civilian should have taken the risk, but depending on the laws in Oklahoma he might not have had a choice. Tough call either way. 

I don't see this story staying in the news. Though the media loves the narrative of Wal-Mart being a hellhole of mass shootings, the fact that the shooting was ended after an armed civilian confronted the killer means that this story will be gone by tomorrow, except for local coverage. And given the fact that the attacker killed himself before shooting more than 3 people it won't go down as a mass shooting stopped by an armed civilian.