COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. — A father says his son was helping an elderly woman with her grocery bags at a Collierville store Thursday when gunshots rang out and hit him in the thigh.
“He’s going out the door and what he remembers is hearing pop sounds,” said the father, who did not want to be identified.
His son, 26, had worked at the Collierville Kroger for two years. He said at first he thought the pops were from balloons. Then, he saw the shooter.
“At the moment he realizes there’s someone with a gun, the shooter wheels and sees him and shoots,” he said.
He said his son got hit in the left thigh and the shooter moved on to another area of the store. But he’s convinced suspect Uk Thang was looking specifically for Kroger employees.
“My guess is the shooter saw the Kroger outfit and shot for that reason, because there’s an elderly woman and him, and shot clearly him,” he said.
He said his son called from the ambulance and told him the news around 2 p.m.
“‘There’s a shooter in the store and I’ve been shot and I’m about to be taken to the emergency room,'” he recalled his son saying.
Paramedics took him to Baptist Hospital in Collierville, where he was treated and released the same day.
“From what I’ve heard he has the least damage of anybody who got hit because it didn’t hit any bone. Didn’t tear up any veins. It just went through, clean shot. He was very fortunate,” he said.
He knew they were luckier than most and said he’s grateful for the Kroger employees who stepped in to save others.
His son was home recovering Friday.
Ten of the 15 shooting victims were Kroger employees, according to Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane.
