Police respond to active shooter call at Walmart in Waycross, 19-year-old gunman dies

WARE COUNTY, Ga. — Police in Georgia tell Action News Jax a teenager opened fire in the Walmart on Memorial Drive in Waycross, then turned the gun on himself Saturday morning.

Police later identified the shooter as 19-year-old John Jaylen Walker Kinnett of Waycross.

Peter Brown was buying groceries at the 24-hour Walmart just before 1 a.m. when he stopped to chat with some friends in the parking lot when all of a sudden shots rang out.

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“We heard what we sounded like a fire cracker, until we just started seeing people scatter and then we actually realized what was going on and it was just chaos after that,” Brown said.

Brown witnessed what happened next and shared cell phone video with us.

Within a matter of minutes, he said at least a dozen police cruisers showed up.

Police said they got a call  about an active shooter firing shots inside of the store.

When police got to the Walmart, they began searching for the shooter. According to police, it only took a couple of seconds before they found him.

They said that Kinnitt turned the gun on himself.

He was taken to a Memorial Satilla Hospital where he died a few hours later from those injuries.

After living in Waycross for five years, Brown never imagined something like this would happen in his quiet town.

“We’re less than 20,000 people, you know like everybody knows everybody and you never expect something like this in a small town,” Brown said.

Police said no one else was hurt and they’re still trying to find out what led to the shooting.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Waycross Police Department.

Normal business hours at the Walmart on Memorial Drive have resumed.

It was then that police said the gunman turned the gun on himself.

He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead just after 3 a.m.

Police identified him as John Jaylen Walker Kinnitt, 19, of Waycross.

Cox Media Group