Man dead after what state police call 'officer-involved shooting' outside Walmart in Lower Macungie

State police chased a suspected shoplifter through the Walmart store in Lower Macungie Township on Wednesday night before he ran outside and died in gunfire, store employees said.

The young man was shot about 9:25 p.m. outside the 1091 Mill Creek store, just south of Hamilton Boulevard. The man got into a white minivan, parked about 50 yards from the store, and died there, the workers said.

Minutes later, police were looking at his body, which ended up either in the driver’s seat or on the pavement just outside the driver’s door, the workers said.

Witnesses said they didn’t know whether a trooper was injured in the chase and gunfire.

State police at Fogelsville had no comment Wednesday night on the death at Walmart. A press conference on the “officer-involved shooting” will be held 11 a.m. Thursday at state police’s Bethlehem headquarters on Airport Road.

State police and the Lehigh County coroner’s office were gathering evidence late Wednesday and into Thursday morning. The body was carried on a stretcher from the minivan to a nearby coroner’s hearse about 12:25 a.m. Thursday.

Earlier, a line of nine troopers, flashlights in hand, marched side-by-side across the parking lot looking for evidence of about a half-dozen gunshots reported there. Investigators also closely searched the minivan.

Witnesses to the shooting said details of the chain of events were hard to pin down. Either they individually saw or heard only small parts of the events, or the things they witnessed happened so fast that they weren’t clear.

Investigators will have to sort out the reports of an exchange of gunfire between the suspected shoplifter and a trooper, and one report that a trooper used a stun gun on the man before the gunfire broke out.

Store employees said the man was reported shoplifting earlier in the evening and may already have carried stolen items from the Walmart to the minivan when he came back inside and was confronted by the trooper.

About 50 customers and 25 employees were in the store when the trooper started running after the young man, an employee said. No shots were fired inside the store, he said.

The young man ran out the Walmart’s “grocery” entrance, which from the parking lot is the entrance to the right, employees said. The second of the two entrances is the “home and pharmacy” door, to the left.

Only seconds after trooper followed the man outside, shots rang out, the workers said.

A moment later, Walmart managers notified the staff that the man had been shot. The worker said they were told to help evacuate the store to let police begin their work.

State police requested the parking lot be sealed off after the customers and most workers left. Lower Macungie fire police kept guard on the parking lot.

fwarner@mcall.com

610-820-6508

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