Police Fatally Shoot 2 Men in Separate Walmart Incidents
South Hill Virginia December 27 2021
Police in the town of South Hill Virginia was involved in a shooting that resulted in the death of a man at the local Walmart store.
According to police, the shooting occurred around 6:50 p.m. in the parking lot of the Walmart located in the 300 block of Furr Street.
Police were called to the store and officers began looking for a person involved in an incident.
An officer located a driver seated inside a Ford F-150 pickup truck located off to the side of the parking lot. As the officer approached the pickup, a shot rang out from inside. The same officer returned fire.
Steven Matze, 44, of Saxe, Va., was identified as the driver, and he died at the scene.
Police say a handgun was recovered from inside the pickup truck, and the officer involved was not hurt.
The Virginia State Police said that the investigation is continuing.
In DeKalb County Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, police fatally shot an armed man on Christmas Eve who was suspected of shoplifting after he pulled a gun on a loss prevention agent.
As horrified shoppers looked on, police and a man exchanged gunshots at the Walmart during a busy Christmas Eve.
At about 1 p.m., a loss prevention officer at the Gresham Road store confronted a man who had put items in a large backpack and was attempting to leave the store without paying.
The man pulled a gun, tried to flee and the security agent then notified an off-duty police officer who was working security. That’s when the suspected shoplifter tried running and was confronted by the off-duty officer who was soon joined by a second police officer who had arrived at the store.
One of the officers attempted to subdue the man with a stun gun. After the suspect ran outside the store holding the gun, one of the officers fired and hit the man.
The suspect “succumbed to his injuries on scene,” police reported on Friday night.
The GBI said the suspect’s identity was not being released pending an official identification and next of kin notification. Once the agency’s investigation is completed, the case will be reviewed by the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
The incident brings the number of shootings involving law enforcement officers the GBI has investigated this year to 98. This past week the number surpassed the total number of similar incidents the agency was asked to investigate in 2020.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations is investigating the shooting at the request of DeKalb police.
