Tri-Cities shopper describes terror, hiding as shots rang out inside Richland Fred Meyer

Susan Leckband of Benton City was in the shoe department of the Fred Meyer in Richland about 11 a.m. Monday when she heard three shots, a pause and then three or four more shots.

She knew immediately that they were gunshots and they seemed very close, she said.

“I don’t think I have ever been that scared,” she told the Tri-City Herald. “And I am old and have seen a lot ... .”

She immediately looked for somewhere to hide and crossed the aisle to huddle behind a clothing rack, she said.

She saw the clerk at the checkout counter by the doorway run.

Leckband kept peeking out, trying to figure out where the shooter was, but saw no one.

About five or 10 minutes later she saw three people walk out the east entrance off Wellsian Way near the shoe department, one of them a man holding his hands in the air and another of them a man pushing a cart.

She remained hidden until she heard a loud screeching sound and saw a man opening an emergency exit in the shoe department.

She waited a little longer “then skittered my way over to the emergency door,” she said.

Out in the parking lot there were already about 20 police and emergency vehicles, she said.

“I stood out in the parking lot and shook and cried,” she said.

As she waited until she felt steady enough to drive, she saw someone carried out of the store on a stretcher, said Leckband, who is the former chairwoman of the Hanford Advisory Board.

One man was killed in the shooting and a Fred Meyer employee was in critical condition after being wounded.

Police said they’d identified a suspect but were still searching for him Monday evening.

This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Tri-Cities shopper describes terror, hiding as shots rang out inside Richland Fred Meyer."