Eaton Township Weis Markets shooting

Eaton Township Weis Markets shooting
Show map of Pennsylvania Show map of the United States Location within PA / United States
Location	Eaton Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Coordinates	41°31′45″N 75°56′51″W / 41.5291°N 75.9474°W / 41.5291; -75.9474
Date	June 8, 2017 (June 8, 2017) 12:57 a.m. – 1:01 a.m. (EDT)
Target	Employees at Weis Markets
Attack type	Murder-suicide, triple-murder, workplace shooting
Weapons	Two pistol gripped 12-gauge Mossberg 500 pump-action shotguns
Deaths	4 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	0
Perpetrator	Randy Robert Stair
Motive	Belief that he would be reborn as a ghost character from Danny Phantom

In the early hours on the morning of June 8, 2017, employees at a Weis Markets supermarket in Eaton Township, Pennsylvania, United States, were stocking and closing the store for the night. Shortly before 1:00 a.m., 24-year-old Randy Stair barricaded the exits of the store and proceeded to shoot and kill three of his co-workers before fatally shooting himself.^[1]

Stair arrived for his late-night shift at Weis Markets in Eaton Township, Pennsylvania (just south of Tunkhannock), on the evening of June 7, 2017, during closing time at approximately 11:00 p.m. Stair went to the staff area of the store and blocked an emergency exit in the far back. He then continued with his duties, stocking shelves and cleaning up from the previous day. At 12:10 a.m., he sent out links to multiple files and videos which detailed his plans via his Twitter account; these files were labeled "Journal", "Suicide Tapes", and "Digital set".^[2][3][4]

Stair then went back to the crew area in the rear of the store, blocked the remaining exits, then locked the automatic doors at the main entrance to the store. He then pulled out two pistol grip pump-action shotguns that he had concealed in a duffel bag^[5] and walked around the store and killed three employees: Victoria Brong, Brian Hayes, and Terry Lee Sterling. He then approached another coworker, Kristan Newell (who had not heard the firing of rounds due to her listening to music with headphones while she was labeling items and stocking shelves near the rear of the store), who he decided to spare. Newell later recalled, "I heard what I thought was something popping and then a sound like something fell to the floor, so I turned around to see if Victoria had heard what I had heard, and she was on the ground and Randy was at the end of the aisle. . . . After he walked up the aisle, I saw Terry out of the corner of my eye, he was at the front of the aisle, and Randy came up behind him and I witnessed that too".^[6][7]

Stair was seen on CCTV surveillance camera footage standing behind Newell as she worked for about five seconds before he proceeded to the next aisle.^[8]

After this, Stair proceeded to fire at glass and other merchandise in the store and shot multiple small portable propane tanks, which failed to explode. Around this time, Newell was able to escape the store by removing the display at the entry doors and breaking the glass door. She hid and eventually managed to escape from the store and call 911.^[9]

After a short time, Stair concluded his shooting of the store's contents. Stair then went to the deli section of the store, and shot another group of items. Whilst Newell was on the phone to the police, Stair placed the loaded shotgun in his mouth and fired a single round through his palate, killing himself instantly. A total of 59 shots had been fired.^[10] All of the shotgun rounds fired came from only one of the two shotguns he brought. Stair stated in his fifth "Suicide Tape" that the second shotgun was only for backup in case the first one "breaks down on [him] or jams, and [he has] no way of fixing it".

• Victoria Brong, aged 25, assistant tag manager, shot 4 times.^[11]
• Brian Hayes, aged 47, night manager and United States Navy veteran, shot 5 times.^[12]
• Terry Lee Sterling, aged 63, shop assistant, shot twice.^[13]

Randy Stair (September 17, 1992^[14] – June 8, 2017), also known as Andrew Blaze, was employed at Weis Markets for seven years and resided in Dallas, Pennsylvania, with his parents.^[15] Prior to carrying out the shooting, Stair uploaded numerous videos and journals documenting his plans and motivations. These materials revealed suicidal ideation, a fear of aging beyond his twenties, and struggles with gender identity. He explicity detailed his intentions for the attack, articulating a belief that the act would transport him to an imagined animated world. Stair harbored a strong fascination with mass shootings, particularly the Columbine High School massacre. He openly revered Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, referring to them as heroes and expressing a desire to meet them.^[16][17][18]

Stair maintained a significant online presence, primarily through his YouTube channel, PioneersProductions, which he started in 2007, initially featuring short sketches and collaborations with other content creators.^[4] By 2014, citing personal setbacks, he shifted direction to launch the video series titled Ember's Ghost Squad, inspired by the character Ember McLain from the Nickelodeon animated series Danny Phantom. In an online journal, Stair claimed Ember wanted him to kill.^[19] He also managed nine Twitter accounts based on his characters, where he shared links to journals and videos uploaded on MediaFire.^[20]

On the evening of June 7, 2017, hours before the shooting, Stair uploaded a final video titled "The Westborough High Massacre". This video featured an angry prologue expressing hatred for people involved with the series, followed by a crudely animated sequence depicting him and an Ember's Ghost Squad character murdering students at a fictional high school. It concluded with montages of previous videos explaining his motives.^[21]

Though the shooting did not receive much attention outside of local news outlets, it did receive attention from parts of the media. Multiple Pennsylvania public leaders expressed their sadness and condemned the shooter's actions. Nevertheless, in reaction to the shooting, the Weis Markets store closed until July 13.^[22] A Weis Markets spokesperson said, "We are deeply saddened by the events of this morning. The safety of our associates, our customers, and the surrounding community is our top priority."^[23]

Becki Hayes, the sister-in-law of victim Brian Hayes, set up a GoFundMe campaign to pay for immediate expenses. Hayes was also featured on Nancy Grace's podcast Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.^[24]

On June 14, 2017, Weis Markets announced the store would be reopened.^[25] The original storefront stayed intact, but the interior was gutted and remodeled with a new floor layout. On July 13, 2017, the store was reopened.^[26] Many people who lived in the area questioned why Weis decided not to relocate the store. In an interview with WNEP, some said they would not even enter the remodeled store due to what occurred there. However, others in the community accepted the supermarket chain's decision. One man said that it would have played into Stair's hands had the store left. He explained, "The evil man who did this would have wanted them to move and would have wanted people to be scared and not want to go to the store after what he did."^[27]

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