Today we morn for the family of a horrible tragedy that occurred yesterday morning in my small town at the local grocery store. This is a tragic story, and it saddens many peoples hearts who live in the area. Disclaimer: not all information is correct and up to date. I will update as information is made public.

Three people were left dead, including the gunman, after a local shooting in my Royal Palm Beach Publix, on Thursday, June 10th 2021. The store is located in a small village in South Florida. According to  the PBSO, the victims include an adult man, adult woman and a  very young child, just under 2 years old.

An elderly Royal Palm Beach Resident and her grandson were targeted in the store, then shot and killed Thursday at a Publix grocery store in the small village of Royal Palm Beach, according to the PBSO. The boy would have been 2 years old at the end of the month.

The shooter was pronounced dead at arrival to the scene. The man fatally shot the old woman and her toddler grandchild before taking his own life in the Publix supermarket. The shooting happened inside the store in the produce section just a little after 11:30 a.m. The Publix is located in a strip mall that also houses small shops and restaurants. The PBSO said one of the responding officers was located just a few doors down in another store when the shooting happened. Before the officer could enter the Publix, the shooting was over and all went quiet.

Multiple more patrol cars showed up at The Crossroads Shopping Plaza shortly before noon. A PBSO helicopter flew in the air above the store to report the story, and a PBC Fire Rescue vehicle was at the scene moments later. Officials confirmed a small hand-gun was found near Wall's body, and the PBSO believe his injuries were self-inflicted. At a local news conference Thursday afternoon, sheriff's spokesperson Teri Barbera stated the detectives were speaking to witnesses and reviewing surveillance video in the store.

"This was NOT an active shooter situation," Barbera said in the statement.

The motive in the shooting is unknown at the time, and the sheriff's office said there is no link confirming a relationship between the gunman and the victims. The victims' families have chose to invoke Marsy's law, so they wont be identified at this time, PBSO said.

PBSO has identified the suspect, who is one of the deceased, as 55-year-old Timothy J. Wall from Royal Palm Beach, a local resident of the area. He lived only 3 miles from the store.

Publix released the following statement shortly after the shooting: “We can confirm that there was an incident at our Publix store located at 1180 Royal Palm Beach Blvd. earlier today. Our thoughts are with those who are impacted by this tragedy. We are cooperating with the local law enforcement.”

The local Publix shoppers who frequent this plaza at Royal Palm Beach Boulevard and Okeechobee Boulevard are in disbelief.

“I heard, ‘Shooting, shooting, shooting. Run, shooting,'” said one man, who was in the deli and heard the gunfire.

“This is such a terrible thing to have happened and its always peaceful and nice, people are very friendly, I was scared. It's sad because everything happened fast. Everyone was running. Some employees were crying.” said Jeri Galavage.

Nearby residents express their shock to the tragedy; "This is a friendly Publix. I can’t believe this crazy thing happened," said one resident Tracy Greene, who often shops at the store. 

"This is not a Publix problem. This is a people problem," explained another witness Oahtee Moody, a Royal Palm Beach resident who lives across the street from the store. "I was born and raised here, and I never would expect this to happen."

While a small handful of Publix employees were given the permission to leave the store, it seemed most workers and some of the customers were being kept longer inside the store to be interviewed by deputies as witnesses. At around about 2:30 p.m., some workers slowly began leaving the store.

Local Law enforcement officers were checking all license tags on cars in the parking lot that day, preventing people from being allowed to move their vehicles off the lot. People were allowed to come back Friday to claim personal items left behind during the incident.

School Officials at the nearby Crestwood Middle School had to briefly lock the school down for safety, according to the School District of Palm Beach County. And an employee at the Dollar Tree, a store in the same shopping complex, said the plaza was locked down while the officials investigated the incident, allowing nobody that could have a statement to leave the plaza.

Melissa McKinlay, is a PBC commissioner who represents the area where the shooting happened, had this to say on Twitter, that:

“we’ve become too numb to gun violence.” She went on to ask the public “to mourn for the loss of these lives and pray for those inside of Publix who witnessed this tragedy.”

In a news conference on June 11th, 2021, PBC Sheriff Ric Bradshaw described the investigation in details as  being "very fluid" and he said that his initial investigation into the case suggested to him that the shooter was not mentally stable because the gunman had allegedly shared multiple posts on the social media platform Facebook expressing his urge or desire to kill people, especially young children.

Ric said he was  very "angry" that no one from the public, or social media platform reported the posts or even notify his office about the threats the mentally ill shooter supposedly posted online. "This didn't have to happen — if people could've called us and said, hey, saw it on Facebook — it's not normal to say, 'I want to kill people and children." Bradshaw said.

This is a horrible tragedy to happen to anybody, especially like this. My condolences go out to the family and I hope you can find peace. Just know there are many people who care and want to show their support! To show them your love and support to the family please sign this petition and share it around to spread awareness for situations like these.