BEND, OR -- A banner hanging outside the eastside Bend Safeway says the store will reopen soon while its website says it opens Wednesday at 6 am. It’s been closed since August 28th when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire inside. He killed two people before taking his own life. 

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel continues to praise the response to the fatal shooting, “Right away, Bend Police was on it. And every law enforcement agency in Central Oregon was on it.” Investigators say officers entered during the gunfire. “We all know about the missteps of the cops in Uvalde; not here. Bend Police were in that Safeway seconds after arriving, never asked whether it would be safe for them to do so. They knew people were in danger and they went in there,” said Hummel. Along with commending police for entering the store while shots were being fired, Hummel praised Don Surrett the produce worker killed while trying to stop the gunman.

The DA went on to say no community is immune to gun violence, “It could happen anywhere and we’re somewhere. It could happen anywhere. You have a lot of guns and a lot of people who, for whatever reason, are at a point in their life where they want to be a star and take people out." He says it’s time we stop saying we don’t want to get involved when we see a social media post threatening violence, “So many of us, me included, have seen that post and said, ‘oh, that person is probably just blowing off steam. I mean, if you take literally what they said, I’d be real concerned. But they probably don’t really mean it.’ And you move on. Well, most people who post something on social media with a veiled threat don’t literally mean it; some do. And we need to start reaching out to those people and reaching out to law enforcement when we see those posts.”