INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Police are continuing to investigate a shooting that happened Tuesday evening at the Dollar General at 23rd and Ralston in Independence.
A woman, who did not want to be identified, said she was inside of the store during the shooting. She told 41 Action News that she encountered a man with a gun in the parking lot.
“When we were getting ready to go back out he told us… me and my grandkids… to go back in. He had a gun so we went back in and that’s when the lady and the little girl came in too,” she said.
That woman who came in with the little girl called her husband, Mike who was working at the Fav Trip gas station next door.
"She was panicking. The little girl, she was holding her daughter, on the phone... she was telling him about the guy outside with a gun... 'come and help us please come and help us'... That's what happened. That's when he came over,” said the witness.
We spoke with Mike on the phone today. He didn’t want to share his last name, but he wanted to tell us his story. Mike said when his wife called she told him there was a man with a gun trying to steal her car. Mike said he came running over with his gun and ended up between the man and the front doors of the Dollar General.
Mike said he was trying to prevent the man from getting inside the store.
The witness told us she watched as the frightening chain of events unfolded in front of her, “I was right there in the front right there by the door yea... I had told my grandkids to go in the back but I was right there."
She also believes Mike was trying to keep her and the others inside of the store safe from the armed man, "He was just protecting... I guess us... so the man wouldn't go in... that's what I thought."
When police arrived, neighbors heard shots being fired.
“I saw the flash come across the front, the side of Dollar General, but I heard four pops, like gunshots for sure,” said Anne-Marie Rutledge who was parked in her car nearby.
Mike and the other man were both shot and taken to the hospital.
Mike tells us he was shot in the hip. Fav Trip posted an update on its Facebook page.
The other man is in stable condition.
Police tell us Mike was involved in the shooting but could not confirm any other details.
Three officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave.
IPD criminal investigation and the Jackson County Prosecutors office are conduction the investigation.
Both Dollar General and the Church’s Chicken across the street said they have handed over surveillance video to police in regard to the shooting.
