A man was shot and killed at the Food Lion grocery store on Union Cross Road on Wednesday morning, Kernersville police said.
Police released few details about the shooting, including the name of the victim. The shooting which occurred about 10:40 a.m.
Police said they located a “subject of interest†at the store and the shooting was an isolated event.
Emergency workers were seen loading an injured man onto a gurney and placing him into an ambulance around 12:20 p.m., in the service area behind the shopping center where the Food Lion is located. A witness said that before he was placed in the ambulance, the man had been lying on the ground face down, appeared to be injured and was yelling at police who stood around him.
The man was handcuffed to the gurney, had blood on his leg and was receiving medical attention as he was loaded onto the ambulance.
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Throughout the day, the Food Lion store, on Union Cross Road near Interstate 40, was locked down and surrounded by yellow police tape.
A bystander said he was told by a store employee that someone had been shot in the store’s restroom, but that could not be confirmed.
A Kernersville police officer was asked by a Journal reporter who arrived shortly after the scene was taped off if there was someone in the store with a gun. The officer replied, “not anymore,†and said details would be forthcoming.
After the shooting, police officers cleared people from the store parking lot and said everyone needed to stay back.
In the far end of the lot, Food Lion employees in their blue store T-shirts stood in small groups. One said they were told to say nothing about what was going on, and another said he didn’t know what was happening, that he had simply been told to leave.
By 11:15 a.m. it seemed the incident was starting to wind down, as several firetrucks were seen leaving the parking lot.
Pat Kinnaman, who had come with her friend Nia Banta to have their nails done at S&T Nails near the Food Lion, said it all started a little after 10, about the time they showed up.
“We were inside when we saw all these police,†she said. “They said ‘Get in! Lock the door — there’s been a shooting in the Food Lion. Lock the door and stay inside.’ The police got their guns and took off.â€
The women and other nail customers were trapped inside for almost an hour.
Around 11:30, an ambulance drove around to meet officers behind the Food Lion, where one of the people involved in the incident was said to be lying on the asphalt, surrounded by police.
Emergency medical workers could be seen behind the Food Lion where they appeared to be administering first aid.
Ann Trinh, owner of S&T Nails, said she saw a man lying face down on the parking lot behind the Food Lion when she looked out the back of her store. The man was screaming and yelling, she said, and at one point told police, “Get off my face.â€
Medical personnel placed the man into the ambulance, and he was taken away.