Man shot woman at Ocala Florida Walmart, later turned gun on self
OCALA, Fla. November 27 2018 A 54-year-old man suspected of the fatal weekend shooting of a woman in a Walmart store in north Florida has been hospitalized with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
Ocala police said in a Facebook post, that David Johnson shot Carli Cronin, 30, in an apparent domestic dispute on Saturday in the garden section of a Walmart in that city.
Witnesses told police Cronin screamed for help before she was shot multiple times. Employees called 911 and attempted to intervene. Investigators said Johnson left the store on a bike after the shooting.
A SWAT team surrounded a home a few miles (kilometers) away a short time later and evacuated neighbors before Johnson was found inside with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to authorities. Police said he was taken to the hospital and wasn’t expected to survive his injuries.
Scotty Ballard told the Ocala Star-Banner that Cronin was his roommate and that Johnson and Cronin had dated for about nine months but weren’t currently together.
Ballard told the newspaper that the pair had been arguing all day Saturday because he wanted to get back together and she did not. Ballard said Johnson threatened Cronin, saying at one point he was “coming strapped” for her.
On Saturday afternoon, Ballard and Cronin went to Walmart to get furnishings for their apartment. Ballard said he was an aisle away when the shooting happened.
Johnson’s family gathered at Ocala Regional Medical Center on Saturday night. His brother, Kenneth Johnson, told the newspaper that his brother had been turning his life around, adding that “he’s not this monster, but a man with a broken heart.”
Kenneth Johnson said Cronin was “the true love” of his brother’s life.
