June 11, 2021 | 5:48pm | Updated June 11, 2021 | 5:49pm
The grandma who died in Thursday’s shooting at a Publix supermarket in Florida had tried to bravely stop the gunman before she was shot, authorities said Friday.
The 69-year-old unidentified woman and her 1-year-old grandson were both killed in the Royal Palm Beach Publix Supermarket by gunman Timothy J. Wall, 55, who then killed himself, the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office recounted in a series of tweets.
“Suspect enters the produce section where the victims were and takes out his gun,” the PBSO tweeted.
“He shoots the child,” another tweet says. “The grandmother interferes with the gunman and because of her brave actions, his gun jams.
“After some struggling, he then ends up shooting the grandmother and then himself.
“This could have been prevented!” another tweet said, citing Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
The office noted Wall had posted on Facebook that “he wanted to kill people and children” and that his “wife said he was acting strangely and paranoid.”
On Thursday, the PBSO said that Wall didn’t know the victims and that there wasn’t a known motive.
The identities of the woman and boy — who would have turned 2 this month — will not be made public by authorities since the victims’ family took advantage of a law allowing their names to be kept confidential, the office said.
