New records, video show horror and heroism during Bend Safeway shooting

Published 6:45 pm Thursday, December 1, 2022

They were Safeway employees and regular shoppers caught in a moment of pure terror on an otherwise calm Sunday night.

Brett Smith ran inside the Bend Safeway near NE 27th Street and U.S. Highway 20 when he heard the gunfire, holding his pepper spray and crowding into a walk-in cooler with three people, ready to attack anyone who came inside. Katrina Jepson ran through the store telling people to get out now. Gary Hansen grabbed a wine bottle and waited at the edge of two aisles before he fled, too. Talon Mafara held the back door for people as they ran for their lives.

These are among the untold stories from the shooting at Safeway Aug. 28, according to a 398-page final update released Thursday by the Bend Police Department. Police could not find a motive behind the shooting rampage.

Officers responded to multiple 911 calls at 7:04 p.m., rushing to the store with lights flashing, then charging in with weapons drawn. The incident was over four minutes later when officers found the gunman’s body in the produce section.

The police department also released more than five minutes of video footage of the shooting, showing what happened when 20-year-old Ethan Miller left his apartment, walked to the Forum Shopping Center and opened fire on innocent people.

The video doesn’t follow the gunman when he shot and killed 84-year-old Glenn Bennett just inside the front door, but does capture what happened to Safeway employee Donald Surrett Jr., who hid behind a produce cart before unsuccessfully trying to subdue the gunman with a knife. Although Surrett and the gunman are obscured by black boxes, the moment of violence is unmistakable. Likewise, so is the moment when the gunman takes his own life.

Bend Police spokeswoman Sheila Miller said Thursday that the department chose to release the records in order to comply with laws around public interest and public records. However, she said the department advises the public against watching the video and urges caution if they choose to do so.

The police reports and video document the chaos that unfolded that night. It is not for the faint of heart.

The gunman began to open fire as he entered the Forum Shopping Center parking lot. Among the stores he hit was Big Lots.

Rich Stidham, the store’s asset protection manager, told police he was about to shut down a store register when he heard the gunfire. People came into the store from the parking lot and said a man was shooting people. He locked the doors and, as he turned to run, he saw a man “calmly” walking in front the store. He remembered the man shouting “You better run you m — f—!”

Nearby, Jimmy Beaty was sitting in his black 2017 Honda Civic outside the Safeway when bullets tore through the top of his windshield and through the front passenger door before sending fragments into his right bicep and his back.

Geoff Wagner was in his SUV in the shopping center parking lot as he watched the gunman open fire at people and buildings. Wagner told police he wanted to run the shooter over with his car but didn’t.

Sophia Aquarius, a Safeway employee, ran outside when her co-worker began yelling about someone shooting in the parking lot and saw the gunman by Big Lots. As he neared the grocery store, she saw him raise his rifle. She and other store employees hid in the restroom, then she called 911. Aquarius told police she could hear the sound of gunfire and people screaming.

After he shot Bennett, the gunman walked through the Safeway aisles and then approached an elderly man who had fallen to the ground. This man told police that the gunman stopped, stood over him and asked him if he was a Christian. The man said he was, and the gunman asked him, Why? “I have no idea but I am,” the elderly man said he told the gunman, who then shot at the floor and walked away.

When the gunman reached Surrett, the Safeway employee lunged at the attacker and there was a brief scuffle. But Surrett dropped to the ground, face down, and covered his head with his arms. The gunman shot him twice in the head with the shotgun. He turned the gun on himself as police ran through the door.

Bend Police officers Austin Earle and Tyler Bergeron were among the officers who raced to the scene. They found Bennett still alive, his arm, hip and thigh punctured by at least five gunshots. They began cutting his clothes off and applying tourniquets. Bennett was grabbing at Earle’s hands and moaning but would not speak or reply to what they were saying. Medics arrived and took Bennett to St. Charles Bend, where hospital staff tried, but failed, to save him.

As rumors spread across town and on social media police followed leads of another shooter and other people who may have been involved, much of which turned up nothing. During the investigation, police interviewed and detained people and, in one moment, aimed a rifle at a man who they later concluded was “unrelated to the actual event and was just in the area of Safeway.”

The ripple effects of what happened that night were only just beginning, as many people reported their shock, horror and trauma to the police. Meanwhile, the funeral home staff had arrived with body bags. They carried Donald Surrett out the front door and removed the gunman through the loading dock at the back of the store.

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