At least three people were shot and killed this morning at around 4 a.m. in an Old Bridge, New Jersey grocery store. It appears that the shooter killed two people before turning the gun on himself. The store was closed at the time but was opening at 6a.m. All three people worked at the Pathmark and the shooter was a former Marine who worked at the store for about two weeks. One of the victims was an 18-year-old woman. We’ll have more details as they come in. Read more below.
Three people are dead after an employee carrying two guns entered the Pathmark in Old Bridge and killed two workers before taking his own life this morning.
The apparently disgruntled worker entered the store around 4 a.m. and shot two people and then himself, Old Bridge mayor Owen Henry confirmed.
The gunman, an ex-Marine, had been working at the store for about two weeks, Henry said. The man, whom he did not identify, had been working at the store Thursday night but left and came back a short time later. He was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and an automatic pistol.
“This is sickening,” said Sarah Reese, 28, who lives in the London Terrace apartment complex next to the supermarket. Her husband is the superintendent of the complex and told her only one ex-Marine lives there.
“It’s really sad,” she added. I can’t believe someone would do this that lives in the same place that I do.”
Caroline Anders, another resident of London Terrace, said she learned that one of the victims is a 18-year-old woman who also lived in the complex and just started working at Pathmark.
“She has a heart of gold,” said Anders of the woman. “She was just beginning her life. She always had a smile on her face and now some clown who is thrown away by society takes her life. Let’s all just pray for all of them.”
After the shooting police removed a number of Pathmark employees and brought them to chairs outside the nearby TGIF restaurant along Route 9 near the Sayreville border. Owen confirmed that several store windows were also shot out but it was uncertain how that happened.
“This is the worst phone call a mayor can receive,” Henry said of the information he obtained about 6:30 a.m. “You can prepare for these things but you can’t prevent them.”The adjacent Old Bridge Park & Ride, which was closed earlier while police investigated, has reopened. Buses are again stopping there, but the parking lots on the northbound side of Route 9 remain closed. Commuters can use the lots on Route 9 at Jake Brown Road or Inverness Drive, according to NJ Transit. Bus tickets will be honored on North Jersey Coast Line trains today.
