A suspect and a deputy sheriff working off duty were wounded as they exchanged gunfire in a suburb of Atlanta, the authorities said.
A customer who argued about wearing a face mask at a Georgia supermarket shot and killed a cashier on Monday and wounded a deputy sheriff working off duty at the store, law enforcement officials said.
The gunman was shot by the deputy, and both are expected to survive their injuries, according to law enforcement officials.
A suspect, identified as Victor Lee Tucker, 30, of Palmetto, Ga., was arrested by DeKalb County Police Department officers “as he was attempting to crawl out the front door of the supermarket,” according to a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The gunfire occurred inside a Big Bear supermarket in Decatur, Ga., about 10 miles east of downtown Atlanta, just after 1 p.m., officials said. That is when Mr. Tucker was checking out of the supermarket and got into an argument with a cashier about his face mask, the bureau said in its statement. Mr. Tucker left the store without purchasing his items but immediately returned.
“Tucker walked directly back to the cashier, pulled out a handgun and shot her,” the bureau said. He then began shooting at the deputy, “who was attempting to intervene while working off-duty at the supermarket,” the bureau said.
The cashier, whose name was not released, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and pronounced dead, officials said. Mr. Tucker was taken there, too, and was in stable condition.
The deputy, whose name was not released, was taken to the Atlanta Medical Center and listed in stable condition, officials said.
The deputy was wearing a bulletproof vest and it likely saved his life, Sheriff Melody M. Maddox of DeKalb County said at a news conference.
A second cashier was “grazed by a bullet” and treated at the scene for her injury, according to the bureau.
