Chad Jason Anderson

Overview

Chad Jason Anderson, 27, committed a domestic dispute-related shooting at a Grand Junction, Colorado grocery store in September 1999. Anderson dragged his estranged wife, Sarah (25), out of the store where she worked as a checker at the Eastgate City Market, 2830 North Ave. He shot and killed her, shot and killed two bystanders, and then shot himself.

Timeline

• September 3, 1999 — Anderson drove to a Grand Junction City Market grocery store and asked for his estranged wife Sarah; after leaving briefly and returning, he dragged her from the store by her hair while cursing her, and then shot and killed Hobert Franklin Jr. in the store.
• September 3, 1999 — In the parking lot, Anderson shot Sarah twice, then shot and killed David Gilcrease before shooting himself.

The offence

Anderson forced his estranged wife, Sarah, out of the grocery store where she worked. Witnesses described that Anderson dragged Sarah by her hair outside the store.

Hobert Franklin Jr., 50, a stranger who attempted to help the woman, was shot and killed by Anderson inside the store. After Anderson moved into the parking lot, he shot Sarah in the torso and the head, killing her.

A second customer, David Wayne Gilcrease, exited to the parking lot to confront Anderson after hearing the emergency. Anderson shot and killed Gilcrease. Anderson then sat down cross-legged on the asphalt near his wife’s body and shot himself.

Investigation

Glen Klaich, a Grand Junction, Colo., police official, said that a domestic dispute was at the heart of the shooting and that Anderson shot and killed Franklin Jr. when Franklin attempted to help the woman.

Police Sgt. Bob Russell believed stronger gun-control laws could not have stopped Anderson’s rampage, saying: “It wouldn't have made a difference in this case,” and “He didn't buy a gun.”

Places

• Eastgate City Market, 2830 North Ave., Grand Junction — the grocery store where Anderson forced his wife out and shot Hobert Franklin Jr.
• Parking lot of the market in Grand Junction — where Anderson shot Sarah and David Gilcrease and then shot himself.

People involved

Offender

• Chad Jason Anderson, 27 — perpetrator of the shooting; killed by suicide at the scene

Victims

• Sarah Miller, 25 — murdered victim; Anderson’s estranged wife and mother of their two young children; worked as a checker at the Eastgate City Market
• Hobert Franklin Jr., 50 — murdered victim; a stranger/customer buying a money order who tried to help the woman
• David Wayne Gilcrease, 32 — murdered victim; customer who confronted Anderson after hearing the emergency

Other details

Anderson had secretly taken the gun from a relative’s house earlier that day.

Police said Anderson walked into the store about 6:15 p.m., brandishing a handgun described as a .22-caliber Ruger handgun or .22 Ruger revolver, and his actions left four people dead.

A quote attributed to Professor John Lott, Jr. of Yale Law School appeared in the material:

“For those states from which data are available before and after the passage of such [nondiscretionary concealed handgun] laws, the mean per-capita death rate from mass shootings in those states plummets by 69 percent.”

A second quote attributed to John Lott, Jr. appeared in the material:

“If counties now without "shall-issue" concealed carry requirements "had been subject to state concealed-handgun laws and had thus been forced to issue handgun permits, murders in the United States would have declined by about 1,400... the number of rapes in states without nondiscretionary laws would have declined by 4,200, aggravated assaults by 60,000, and robberies by 12,000."

The material also included remarks attributed to Ari Armstrong and contained the line “A horrible tragedy. Would a "shall-issue" concealed carry law in Colorado have stopped it?”