BATON ROUGE — A man fired a gun during an argument with another man at a Walmart in Louisiana’s capital on Tuesday morning, shooting and injuring a bystander who was in line to buy a lunchbox, authorities said.
The shooting happened around 11:45 a.m. CT at a Walmart in southern Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux III told reporters.
One of the two men in the altercation was arrested after someone called 911, and authorities are looking for the other man, Gautreaux said. The sheriff said it wasn’t immediately clear which of the men fired the shot.
The injured bystander was shot twice, went to a hospital in a private vehicle, and was in stable condition early Tuesday afternoon with injuries that aren’t believed to be life-threatening, the sheriff said, citing officers who had spoken with hospital staff.
The names of the injured man and the men accused of being involved in the argument weren’t immediately released.
The argument erupted between two patrons near a customer service desk. Both pulled out guns, and one fired, Gautreaux said.
The bystander who was shot while he was “in line to buy one of his children a school lunchbox,” Gautreaux said.
About 200 patrons were in the store when the shooting happened, and officers evacuated the store upon arriving, according to the sheriff.
Tuesday’s shooting in Baton Rouge came three days after a gunman killed 22 people and injured another 24 at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
