A violent and chaotic scene unfolded in Tumwater, Wash., late Sunday afternoon, ending when police say an armed bystander shot and killed a carjacker in a Walmart parking lot. A driver who was shot by the carjacker is in critical condition, and a 16-year-old girl suffered non-serious injuries. The details remained in flux, but the Seattle Times reports that it all began when police received a call around 5pm about an apparently drunken driver near the local high school. While officers were en route, they learned that a man had carjacked a vehicle belonging to the teenage girl at a nearby intersection. The carjacker then apparently abandoned that vehicle and tried to carjack a second one at Walmart, but the driver refused to give it up.
The carjacker shot the driver twice, then was confronted by two armed bystanders, one of whom opened fire, police say. "He is a hero," witness Brian Adams tells KING5. "This guy could have taken out more people, wounded or killed." The bystander who killed the carjacker then got a medical kit and began helping the wounded driver. By most accounts, including in the Olympian, the carjacker was attempting to steal a third vehicle when he was fatally shot. While the incident was unfolding, people inside the Walmart fled outside, believing a shooter was inside the building. It doesn't appear the carjacker ever entered the store, but police were still investigating. (In another incident, armed drivers foiled a hijacker twice.)