Buffalo supermarket shooting: Grocery store attacks on the rise, FBI says

Saturday’s mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo that killed 10 emphasizes a rising trend of incidents at grocery stores, The Washington Post reported.

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The newspaper, citing data from the FBI, reported that there were 28 similar attacks between 2000 and 2020, which left 78 people dead and 83 injured.

Some of the shootings occurred at gas stations or convenience stores, but a majority of them have occurred at major grocery chains like Walmart or Kroger, according to the Post. Between 2000 and 2017, the number of shootings at grocery stores averaged less than one per year.

But according to data compiled by the FBI, there were two shootings in 2018 and six in 2020, the last year the agency published data.

>> Buffalo supermarket mass shooting: 10 dead; police were aware of shooter last year

A report has not been issued for 2021, but there were several notable shootings at grocery stores.

The mass shooting is the deadliest of 2022, according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.

• On March 22, 10 people, including a police officer, died when a gunman opened fire at a King Soopers store in Boulder, Colorado. Police arrested 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa on 10 counts of first-degree murder after the shooting.
• On June 10, a man shot a child and the child’s grandmother before turning the gun on himself at a Publix supermarket in Royal Palm Beach, Florida.
• On June 14, a man shot and killed a cashier at Big Bear Supermarket in Decatur, Georgia, WSB-TV reported. The incident began when a man walked into the store and refused to put on a mask, according to the television station. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the cashier told Victor Lee Tucker, Jr., 30, of Palmetto, to put on a mask and an argument ensued.
• On Sept. 23, one person was killed and 14 others were injured after a shooting at a Kroger grocery store in Collierville, Tennessee, WHBQ-TV reported. Ten of the victims were employees and five were customers who were shot by Uk Thang, a man who was a third-party vendor.

On Feb. 6, 2022, one man was killed after an argument escalated into a deadly shooting at a Publix in Coral Gables, Florida.

According to the Post, grocery stores have been a target for violence because they are open early in the morning and close late at night. The stores have a steady flow of customers and cater to a broad range of people, which sometimes results in friction, the newspaper reported.

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