Hero Grocery Store Worker Tried to Disarm Gunman Before Being Killed in Oregon Safeway Shooting

Mar. 15, 2025

Donald Surrett Jr.Photo: GoFundMe

One of the two victims of Sunday’sdeadly shooting inside an Oregon supermarketis being hailed a hero as new details emerge about the violence.

A second victim, Glen Edward Bennett, 84, was shot and killed at the front of the store.

Both victims have GoFundMe pages to help aid funeral expenses.

In atouching tribute for Surrett Jr., Surrett’s sister-in-law, Jerilynn Morra, wrote, “Don was a veteran and his instincts kicked in trying to save others. He was shot and killed trying to subdue the young gunman.”

Glenn Edward Bennett.GoFundMe

Bennett’sGoFundMepage states he was a veteran who’d been a medic in the Korean war.

“Glenn was such a kind, generous, and well spoken man,” a relative who identified herself as Deidre C. wrote on the page.

Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin via AP

Just after 7 p.m. on Sunday, the gunman was first spotted at a shopping center in Bend. He fired shots in a Costco parking lot and near the entrance of a Big Lots store. No one was injured at either location.

Shortly afterward, the gunman entered a Safeway grocery store and opened fire, killing Surrett Jr. and Bennett and injuring one more individual. When officers arrived at the scene, they found the gunman already dead. According toCNN, police found an AR-15-style rifle and a shotgun close to the shooter’s body.

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Officers did not fire their weapons at the scene.

When the shooting started, shoppers began running for the exit.

Molly Taroli, 40, told theBend Bulletinthat she saw the shooter “spraying shots,” down every aisle of the grocery store. She pulled a handgun from her purse as her husband ran out the front door to grab his gun. Taroli ran out the back door.

The shooting has shocked and outraged Oregon’s elected officials.

“America cannot just shrug its shoulders at another mass shooting with loved ones grieving the loss of family and friends,” Senator Ron Wydentweeted. “I’m willing to work with anybody who’s sick and tired of mass shootings to find solutions that put an end to this gun violence madness once and for all.”

source: people.com