News

Shoppers were ‘baffled by gunfire'

By Carole Cloudwalker

This document was published online on Wednesday, July 11, 2007

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Greg Wise and his son Sam, 16, of Powell had some time to kill Monday afternoon while waiting to pick up copies of the Enterprise for distribution in Powell.

They did what they often do in such a circumstance: they went shopping at WalMart.

“We had just left the (store) building - it was about 2:30 or 2:45 p.m.,” Greg Wise said. “We left from the door to the grocery department, and all of a sudden I heard a ‘bam,' then a ‘bam, bam, bam.'”

Wise said he “looked over and saw a guy pointing a gun” toward the east entrance to the store.

While Wise cannot say what the shooter was wearing or give much of a description, he said he was “an older man, maybe in his 60s.”

Standing next to a light blue vehicle, the shooter had his arm raised, brandishing a pistol which he appeared to be pointing at a target instead of firing randomly around the parking lot, Wise said.

“He was standing next to what I thought was a 1970s model light blue Lincoln Town Car or Town and Country with a partial vinyl roof and opera windows,” Wise said.

“He was shooting toward the far eastern (entrance), where I noticed a motorcycle leaving rather fast, but I'm not sure that's what he was shooting at,” Wise added.

In disbelief, Wise asked a man standing next to him whether it was gunshots he was hearing.

The man, who also was staring at the shooter, said, “It sounds like a .44 to me.”

“Then the guy (shooter) just got into his car and drove away - not in a hurry or anything,” Wise recalled. “It looked like a Park County (license) plate.”

Thinking fast, Wise tried to read and scribble down the license plate number as the blue car pulled away about two rows from Wise.

Though he was still “just stunned” at what he had seen, he and his son got into their vehicle and decided to follow the blue car.

Meanwhile, Wise made a call to 911 to report the incident.

“I went toward town, but I never saw him,” Wise said. “Either I lost him or he went the other way.”

Wise said he felt no fear watching the shooting unfold, though he is not sure why he was not scared.

But he said when he called his wife to tell her about it, she chided him for attempting to follow the shooter while their son was in the car.

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