Eaton Township Weis Markets shooting
2017 shooting attack in Pennsylvania, U.S.
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In the early hours of June 8, 2017, employees at the Weis Markets supermarket in Eaton Township, Pennsylvania, United States, were stocking and closing the store for the night when 24-year-old employee Randy "Andrew Blaze" Stair barricaded the exits of the store and proceeded to shoot and kill three of his co-workers before fatally shooting himself.
Eaton Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| Eaton Township Weis Markets shooting | |
|---|---|
   Location within PA / United States | |
| Location | 41.5291°N 75.9474°W Eaton Township, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Date | June 8, 2017 12:57 a.m. – 1:01 a.m. (EDT; UTC−04:00) |
| Target | Employees at Weis Markets |
Attack type | |
| Weapons | Two pistol gripped 12-gauge Mossberg 500 pump-action shotguns (only one used) |
| Deaths | 4 (including the perpetrator) |
| Injured | 0 |
| Perpetrator | Randy Stair |
| Motive |
|
Shooting
Stair arrived for his late-night shift at the Weis Markets store in Eaton Township, Pennsylvania, on the evening of June 7, 2017, at approximately 11:00 p.m.[1] He proceeded to work for approximately an hour and 40 minutes while blocking several emergency exits with pallets and other items.[2][3]
Stair went back to the crew area in the rear of the store, blocked the remaining exits, and locked the automatic doors at the main entrance to the store.[1] He's seen on surveillance leaving the store to move his car to the store's building to block an emergency exit.[4] He pulled out two pistol grip pump-action shotguns that he had concealed in a duffel bag.[1] Stair entered the store, locking a door behind him.[4] He walked around the store, killing three employees: Victoria Brong, Brian Hayes, and Terry Lee Sterling. He approached another coworker, Kristan Newell, whom he decided to spare.[5]
Stair proceeded to fire at the glass and other merchandise in the store, and shot several small portable propane tanks, which failed to explode. Around this time, Newell managed to escape from the store and call 911.[6] Whilst Newell was on the phone, Stair fatally shot himself. A total of 59 shots had been fired; all the shotgun rounds fired came from only one of the two shotguns he brought.[7]
Victims
Perpetrator
Randy Robert Stair (September 17, 1992[11] – June 8, 2017), also known online as Andrew Blaze, was employed at the Weis Markets supermarket for seven years and resided in Dallas, Pennsylvania, with his parents and brother.[7] According to an online document he authored, he was a shy introverted kid who felt affect whether he was away from his parents. He grew fascinated with television series, films, music, and animations as a child, and aspired to create similar projects.[12]
Stair has maintained a significant online presence, primarily on YouTube and Twitter.[13] He started creating and uploading videos on YouTube in 2008 on YouTube channel, PioneersProductions, initially featuring short sketches. He was highlighted in an episode of "Equals Three" by YouTuber Ray William Johnson.[14] His videos were described as humorous and light-hearted, but were "sometimes a bit mundane and boring." He is often thankful for his YouTube following, noting in one of his videos that the platform had kept him away from depression.[15] However, by 2014, citing depression, Stair shifted direction to launch the animated series Ember's Ghost Squad, inspired by the character Ember McLain from the Nickelodeon animated series Danny Phantom, whom Stair had an obsession with. Stair worked with a group of animators and voice actors in developing the series.[14] The series involves a fantasy world featuring mostly female characters.[16] Nine Twitter accounts based on the series' characters were created, where the accounts carried on conversations with each other.[17] Besides from YouTube and Twitter, he have accounts on Facebook, Bandcamp, and Instagram, in addition to DeviantArt and a fan wiki for the series.[18] He was an active user to online forums dedicated to the Columbine High School massacre.[17]
Stair began having suicidal ideation after learning about McLain's death from arson and claimed in one of his videos that McLain wanted him to murder because her "Ghost Squad [needed] more souls."[14] After the deaths of his acquaintances between 2012–2013, he was sent into a state of depression and had increased thoughts about death.[17] As he grew increasingly isolated, he believed that he could no longer age beyond his twenties and began to deteriorate due to isolation.[3] Stair felt disconnected from reality, holding beliefs that he didn't belong in the world and his series' characters were real. He had consistently expressed his desire to be with his created characters, specifically one named Mackenzie West, whom he believed to be his soulmate. As Stair's obsession with his created world grew, he developed misanthropic views and frequently expressed his hatred for humanity and the world, often describing how he wanted to kill as many people as possible.[17] Stair have gender dysphoria as he described having "a female soul trapped in [his] body." He admitted in a video to his parents that he had been cross-dressing on Wednesdays whenever his parents and brother were out bowling. He discuss wanting to undergo gender-affirming surgery. In Ember's Ghost Squad, he voiced Andrew Blaze, a "self-insert" character who identified as female despite her masculine first name;[14] He claimed that the character was his true self.[17]
Planning
In the three to four months before the shooting, Stair created numerous videos and posts on Twitter documenting his planning and motivations. On May 1, Stair posted on Twitter that he planned to do “something massive” on June 9 to celebrate the ninth anniversary of his YouTube channel.[16] In a video he posted on May 11, 2017, he showcased a pair of pistol grip shotguns, which he dubbed "Mackenzie" and "Rachael".[19] He documented target practicing with these shotguns, a tour of the Weis Markets' supermarket, and a coin flip which determined his decision to commit the attack. He notes the victims he would kill were part of a "soul contract" in order for him to enter into his created world.[20]
On the evening of June 7, 2017, hours before the shooting, Stair uploaded his final video, "The Westborough High Massacre/Goodbye". The video began by him expressing his frustration over people involved with it, followed by him loading shotguns, using one for target practice, and kissing and fondled a loaded shotgun. The video included him praising Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre.[3] An animated sequence was featured depicting himself, and his characters as the perpetrating school shooters of the video.[21] Stair has harbored a fascination for Harris and Klebold and made several references in admiration to them.[14] Along the video, he posted links to multiple files and videos on a file-sharing website, including a series of videos, audio recordings, and journal entries labeled as "Suicide Tapes", a journal, a Microsoft Word document that listed multiple online accounts,[21][16] and a purple spiral notebook scribbled along the words "Sandy Hook," "Dylan Klebold," "Eric Harris," "9/11," and "OKC," referencing other massacres. At 12:37 am of June 8, he texted a suicide note to his mother who was asleep.[3]
Aftermath
The shooting garnered local and national media attention. On the evening of June 8, 2017, hundreds of people gathered at the Wyoming County Courthouse to hold a vigil in honor of the victims, with eight pastors present.[22] Becki Hayes, the sister-in-law of victim Brian Hayes, set up a GoFundMe campaign to pay for immediate expenses. Hayes was featured on Nancy Grace's podcast Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.[23] Laura Faverty, an actress who voiced one of the Ember's Ghost Squad characters, said in an interview with WILK that she received an email from Stair posted less than an hour before the shooting. The email is a suicide note thanking Faverty and outlined the motive behind his videos. Faverty said that she wouldn't notice Stair's violent behavior.[24][6]
Stair's mental health issues have been documented by those within the profession. Wyoming County District Attorney Jeff Mitchell states that Stair have severe mental illness.[25] He said that Stair's case is "a mental health situation that utterly spiraled out of control" that his mental illness resulted in the attack.[3] Psychiatrist Matthew A. Berger said that many young killers who died by suicide, like Stair, were unable to tell the difference between fiction and reality. Jeanne Rosencrance, involved in the trauma services at the Lackawanna County district attorney’s office, states that Stair's perceived lack of help and acknowledgement from others in dealing with his gender dysphoria led him to seek revenge.[17]
State police investigate Stair's online presence for his motives.[26] Several writers have documented his online presence in relation to planning his attack. The Scranton Times Tribute's writer David Singleton wrote that Stair carefully avoided revealing his plans online, although he posted about suicide and hints of "something big to come." Rosencrance said she found it difficult to fathom that none of his viewers had realized Stair's plans.[17] Vice wrote how Stair's collection of files is designed similarly to a press kit that would result in the files being downloaded and distributed by media publications after the shooting. The writers decided not to include them in an effort not to contribute to Mass shooting contagion and tried contacting YouTube and Twitter to remove the accounts; the former removed his account on June 10, and the latter was still up at the article's time. The writers would criticize both platforms for not removing Stair's accounts immediately after the shooting and allowing his videos and posts to be spread through the internet.[21]
Weis Markets' response
In reaction to the shooting, the Weis Markets store involved was closed;[27] a spokesperson said they were grieving on the shooting and that "the safety of our associates, our customers, and the surrounding community [were their] top priority."[28] On June 14, 2017, Weis Markets announced the store would be reopened.[29] The store was remodeled, and a re-opening ceremony took place on July 13. Many people who lived in the area, including families of the victims, questioned Weis' decision;[30] some disagreed with the store's remodeling due to the shooting, while others accepted it. A spokesperson said the decision wasn't easy but the people around the area were supportive. One man said that it would have played into Stair's hands if the store relocated, arguing that he would have wanted the store to relocate and be avoided in aftermath of the shooting.[31]
