A second worker has died a day after the mass shooting at an Ohio cosmetics warehouse, officials said Thursday — as the suspected gunman is due in court.
Shakhar Chapagai, 30, was pronounced dead late Wednesday at a Columbus hospital, a day after being hit at work in New Albany, about 15 miles northeast of the state capital, Columbus, officials said. A staffer who was pronounced dead at the scene has yet to be officially identified.
News of Chapagai’s death comes as officials said one worker told authorities during a frantic 911 call that he was shot in the neck.
That caller also said he took the gun away from the shooter, a coworker, and handed the weapon to a supervisor.
Four other employees were also wounded. Their conditions were not known Thursday.
Accused gunman Bruce Reginald Foster III, 28, took a rideshare away from the bloodbath just before cops got there, New Albany Police Chief Greg Jones said.
He was finally found at an apartment in Columbus on Wednesday, about 12 hours after the carnage, and subdued with a stun gun when he refused to surrender, according to Chief Deputy US Marshal Dan Deville.
Although Foster later talked to investigators, Jones, the police chief, said he “wouldn’t call him fully cooperative.”
Police have yet to determine a motive and said they did not receive any “reports of an altercation beforehand or afterward.”
However, the police chief has said “it appears at this point to be a targeted type of attack.”
“It does appear that there was a contact between a victim and the shooter,” Jones said, without elaborating on exactly what. “At this point, I don’t have a clear picture of how involved that contact was.”
Foster is due in court Thursday afternoon on a felony aggravated murder charge. Officials have said further charges are likely. Court records did not list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
There were about 150 employees inside the building at the time of the shooting who were evacuated to a nearby building. A firearm was also recovered at the scene.
With Post wires.