3 killed in random Colorado Walmart shooting

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The man wanted for a deadly shooting at a Walmart in Colorado on Wednesday night has been identified by police as 47-year-old Scott Ostrem.

He fled the scene in a red Mitsubishi Mirage and is still at large, according to the Thornton Police Department. He should be considered “armed and dangerous,” police said.

Two men and one woman were killed in what police say was a "random" shooting.

The suspect was wearing a black jacket, maroon shirt and jeans when he nonchalantly walked in the front door of the Walmart in the Denver suburb of Thornton and opened fire with a handgun, randomly targeting people in the front of the store near the registers. Ostrem then exited the store, got into a car and drove away, police said after reviewing security footage from the store.

Police said they can't rule out terrorism, but that there are no indications it is terror-related. Police said they have no motive in the shooting.

A man arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting three people inside a suburban Denver Walmart was described Thursday by neighbors as a hostile loner who cursed at them and often carried a shotgun in and out of his third-floor apartment.

Police arrested Scott Ostrem, 37, a day after the shooting that killed three people following a brief morning rush-hour chase in the northern Denver suburb of Thornton several blocks from his apartment building and about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the Walmart.

Ostrem was handcuffed at a crowded intersection about 14 hours after the shooting, which killed two men and a woman and sent dozens of shoppers and workers fleeing in panic from the busy store. Police spokesman Victor Avila declined to say whether Ostrem had a weapon.

Identified as the victims were Pamela Marques, 52, of Denver; Carlos Moreno, 66, of Thornton; and Victor Vasquez, 26, of Denver, said Adams County Coroner Monica Broncucia-Jordan. None were Walmart employees.

Police did not disclose if they had not determined a motive for the shooting, but residents of the Samuel Park Apartments building where Ostrem lived described him as a rude man who kept to himself.

Muniz said she sometimes saw Ostrem carrying a shotgun or a bow and set of arrows to and from the building, which faces the back side of a liquor store, a dollar store and a cellphone store.

Gerald Burnett, a 63-year-old retiree who lives in a first-floor unit, said he was sitting on the stairs drinking coffee one morning when Ostrem came down, told him to move and cursed at him.

Ostrem had minor run-ins with police dating back to the 1990s, including a December 1999 charge of resisting arrest in Denver that was dismissed the following year.

In September 2015, Ostrem filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and listed his income for the previous year as $47,028.00. He estimated that he more than $85,000 including credit card debt and said he worked as a sheet metal fabricator at a roofing company in the town of Erie, about 25 miles (45 kilometers) north of Denver.

Ostrem had worked for a Denver roofing company until 2014, said Sandra Runyon, an administrative assistant at Tecta America Colorado Commercial Roofing. Runyon said the company had had no contact with Ostrem since he left.

There was no evidence Ostrem had ever worked for Walmart, said spokesman Ragan Dickens.

Walmart shoppers who reached for their firearms when shots broke out inside a Colorado superstore on Wednesday night made it difficult for police to immediately identify the gunman.

While many of the customers screamed and ran for the exits, police said “a few” people drew their handguns in response — adding to the confusion when investigators began reviewing surveillance footage from inside the store, the Denver Post reported.

In September 2015, Ostrem filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and listed his income for the previous year as $47,028.00. He estimated that he owed more than $85,000, including credit card debt.

Colorado Walmart Killer Lived Alone With a Stack of Bibles and No Furniture


LITTLETON, Colorado—Minutes before he opened fire inside a Walmart on Wednesday, Scott Ostrem stormed down the stairs of his apartment building and told neighbors to “get the f**k out of his way. Then he got into his car and took off.”

Teresa Muniz says she gets a chill when she realizes her neighbor was on his way to commit America’s next horrific shooting. The “angry guy upstairs” drove to a nearby Walmart where witnesses say he walked in, calmly took out his handgun, and shot and killed three people waiting in line to pay. Neighbors described Ostrem as a bizarre, angry man who lived alone in an apartment with a stack of Bibles and virtually no furniture.

Once again the good guys with guns, stop a bad guy with a gun... Oh wait, that didn't happen. They just made it more difficult for the police to identify the gunman. Gun nuts are pathetic. Promises, promises, promises, about how they are the responsible ones keeping society safe from bad guys. When s**t like this goes down, where are they? Hiding like little b*****s. Gun owners are worthless.

Another radical Christian terrorist attack.




Colorado Walmart Killer Lived Alone With a Stack of Bibles and No Furniture

Most people that carry guns legally do so for personal protection and not to try to be some kind of hero. That's for the police. I think hiding or running is the appropriate response to the situation armed or not.

Having bibles proves the guy was motivated by Christian fundamentalism about as much as the fact that he is "a bizarre, angry man who lived alone in an apartment" proves he is an aspie.

What exactly would make a Wal-Mart a target for Christian fundamentalists, as opposed to an abortion clinic or strip club?

I'd say its more that bibles were the only thing he had, rather than that he had bibles that makes it likely he could have been a christian fundamentalist...but still as far as I know the motive is not known yet so to early to say that for sure.

What exactly would make a Wal-Mart a target for Christian fundamentalists, as opposed to an abortion clinic or strip club?

Most people that carry guns legally do so for personal protection and not to try to be some kind of hero. That's for the police. I think hiding or running is the appropriate response to the situation armed or not.

A gun is great personal protection to be holding when the SWAT team bursts through the front door.