A shooting at a nail salon rocked the town of Summersville, West Virginia, when a man fatally shot two people before being shot dead by authorities, police said.
The Summersville officers responded to an active shooter situation Thursday night at Jo’s Nails & Spa, police said in a Facebook post Friday.
In response to the shooting, two Summersville officers The gunman was shot and taken to Summersville Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead of his injuries shortly thereafter, police said.
According to local media, Summersville police identified the suspect in the mass shooting as Patrick Wayner Cater, of 52 years old, and to the two victims as Khuyen Van Le, of 45 years old, and Phi Anh Le, from 40, who were co-workers and they were married.
Summersville Police Chief John Nowak told the media that Cater had worked there before and arrived at the location with a semi-automatic pistol.
Residents reacted with dismay to the fatal shooting, saying it’s been a sad two days.
“I’m really scared. We have amazing officers here in Nicholas County, I appreciate each one of them and what they do, but they can’t be everywhere. We need people to wake up,” said resident Dreama Pritt in statements collected by WDTV.
Meanwhile, Johane Villaseñor, who was working next to the salon when the shots rang out, said she can still hear the sound of the guns.
“You wouldn’t think this would happen in Summersville West Virginia. It was scary to hear the shots. I can still remember it vividly,” he stressed.
The West Virginia State Police is investigating the fatal incident.
With information from WDTV / The Associated Press