After almost a dozen people were stabbed on Saturday afternoon in a Walmart in Traverse City, Michigan, the rapid actions of a few Marines and other bystanders helped to stop the attacker causing further damage.
Two of the injured were in a serious state on Sunday afternoon, after what the police described by a lonely attacker as a “random” action. One victim was treated and released, Dr. Thomas Schermerhorn, the Chief Medical Officer at Munson Medical Center, on a Sunday afternoon news conference. All victims are expected to survive, he added. They vary in age from 29 to 84.
“It seems that these were all random actions,” said Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea earlier on Sunday. “The victims were not determined in advance,” and there is no indication of extra suspects, the sheriff added.
The suspect, identified as the 42-year-old Bradford James Gille of Afton, Michigan, is confronted with accusations of one count of terrorism and 11 counts of abuse with the intention of killing, said Shea on Sunday afternoon. He will be charged at the beginning of this week and will be confronted with life in prison, officials said.
Around 4.10 pm Gille entered the Walmart in Garfield Township and stayed in until the incident unfolded at 4.45 pm, De Sheriff said. Gille was armed with a “folding knife” and stabbed 11 people in the store's cash register, according to the Grand Traverse County Sheriff's Office. One of the victims is a Walmart employee.
The representative of a sheriff arrived on the spot “within a few minutes” and took the suspect in custody, De Sheriff said. Citizens in Walmart also helped with the fear of the suspect and treatment of victims, he said, without providing details. The suspect was not injured.
“What they did was great,” said Shea about the people who came in.
Residents of Traverse City, a small community on the coast of Lake Michigan, are now lagging behind what the Sheriff called a “very unusual” act of violence in the area.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she had contact with the police about the “terrible news” and praised First Responders for their quick action.
This is what we know about the brutal, broad daylight attack.
Tool personnel gather outside the Walmart, where the declining incident took place on Saturday in Traverse City, Michigan,. – Jerome Hartl/UGC/Reuters
A family vacation turned to chaos
Matt Kolakowski and his brother -in -law, Chris O'Brien, were in Traverse City for a family vacation past Lake Michigan when their journey took an unexpected turn.
The brothers stopped at Walmart with the 13-year-old daughter of Kolakowski and her friend to pick up stocks for the weekend. While they checked out, they heard a hectic message.
“He has a knife!” Kolakowski heard a shop employee screaming. Seconds later, he said, the store broke out in massive panic as an attacker who had just stabbed several people near the cash register, was still moving.
Kolakowski, a 39-year-old Marine, said his instincts came into effect. He told his daughter and her friend to sit, and he and O'Brien left after the suspect, who still used 'a huge buckmes'.
'I thought to myself:' Well, I have no weapon, so what am I going to do? “So I just grabbed an empty shopping cart and just left as hard as I could,” said Kolakowski.
While Kolakowski ran after the attacker, he said he saw the man stabbing another man in the shoulder and an older woman in the back while fled the store.
In the parking lot, Kolakowski said that he rammed the attacker in the ankle with a shopping cart. He lifted the cart over his head and tried to hit the attacker, who clambered away before he was hit.
Kolakowski said that he and others chased the man while dedicating in the parking lot between large posts and cars.
“He shouted something about him as a soldier, and that everyone in Walmart was bad people,” said Kolakowski. “His eyes were just out of his head.”
Another bystander, who learned Kolakowski later, is also a marine, pulled a gun on the attacker.
“The other navy told me that he was just going to shoot at a reach and he forgot to take his gun off his hip,” said Kolakowski. “That's what it all came on.”
Eventually the attacker dropped the knife and Kolakowski, who told CNN that he served in Iraq almost 20 years ago, stopped him until the help arrived.
“I just became someone I have not been for a long time and just stayed on top of him until the delegate persisted and on top of him jumped with a gun in his face, and I helped the representative to arrest him,” he said.
When Kolakowski told the officer that he was a former navy, the officer gave him a few medical suits and asked him to help. He helped the police with the handling of the wounded, applying Tourniquets to stabbing victims who were still in shock.
“It was just massive panic in the parking lot – ambulances, everywhere lights, everywhere sirens, blood everywhere, people who are loaded on carts, put in ambulances,” said Kolakowski. “It was quite a hurry.”
In the meantime, O'Brien said that he went back to the store to find the girls, who were afraid but safe.
“When I walked back, it was an absolute nightmare,” said O'Brien. “It was blood everywhere.”
O'Brien said he still can't understand what someone would drive to commit that kind of violence.
“The man with the gun showed great restraint because I think everyone would have pulled the tractor,” said O'Brien.
“Thank goodness, the other marine did not pull the trigger because the families can actually get justice,” said Kolakowski.
Video shows the impasse with the attacker
CNN obtained video of the confrontation with the attacker in the parking lot and had several people shout at him to “throw the knife” and lie on the floor. In the video, taken from a distance, it is unclear whether the man holds something or throws a road. The video also seems to show several people who have seen a victim in the neighborhood.
Outside the Walmart, part of a larger shopping complex, emergency vehicles were along the parking lot while first responders protected the scene, according to video images obtained by the Associated Press. Authorities were seen with employees, many still held in their blue vests and name tags, while the answer shifted to an active investigation.
Tiffany Defell, 36, told the AP that she was in the parking lot when the chaos around the stabbing attack broke out.
“It was really scary. I and my sister were just crazy. … This is something you see from the films. It is not what you expect to see where you live,” she said.
Police officers speak with Walmart employees outside the store where the stabbing incident took place, in Traverse City, Michigan, on Saturday. – Jerome Hartl/UGC/Reuters
Eleven victims
Munson Healthcare, a hospital system in Noord -Michigan, dealt with the 11 victims of the stabbing attack, according to a statement on their Facebook page.
Three of the victims underwent surgery after the attack, according to the sheriff, who said that the 11 injured are six men and five women.
All victims were stabbed, Munson spokesperson Megan Brown told The Associated Press.
Research under protest on a random attack in the small community
Detectives, with the help of the FBI, have interviewed Gille in detail and determining a possible motive will be part of the research, De Seriff said.
Walmart Corporate spokesperson Joe Pennington condemned the attack and said in a statement to CNN: “Violence like this is unacceptable. Our thoughts are with those who were injured and we are grateful for the quick action of first responds.”
“During their research we will work closely with law enforcement,” he added.
Civil servants and residents spend a shock that such an attack took place in Traverse City, a community of approximately 16,000 known for its beaches on Lake Michigan, Wineries and Cherry Festival.
Violence 'is very unusual for our area, “said De Seriff. “But unfortunately … nobody is immune for this.”
It is unclear what Gille did in Traverse City, but there were indications that he had previously lived in the province and “was somewhat familiar with the area,” said Shea. “I am not immediately aware of why he returned here, or why he went to Walmart,” the sheriff added.
Whitmer regretted the 'terrible news' of the attack and said, “Our thoughts are with the victims and the community that falters with this brutal act of violence.”
Traverse City is the home of former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Champen Buttigieg, who live there with their children.
“Together with the entire Traverse City community, Champen and I are shaken earlier today by the terrible and meaningless violence at Walmart,” said Buttigieg on X. “We think of anyone who is affected and hoping and praying for fast recovery for everyone who were injured.”
CNN's Zoe Sottile, Danya Gainor and Diego Mendoza have contributed to this report.
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