NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — Two New Jersey supermarket employees killed during a rampage by a co-worker this week died from single gunshot wounds.
Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan says autopsies were performed Saturday on 18-year-old Cristina LoBrutto and 24-year-old Bryan Breen. They were gunned down early Friday at a Pathmark store in Old Bridge Township by 23-year-old Terence Tyler, who committed suicide by shooting himself once in the head with a handgun.
All three were pronounced dead at the scene. About a dozen other workers who were in the store were able to escape the shooting and were not hurt.
The supermarket has been shuttered since the shootings occurred, and a Pathmark spokeswoman said Sunday that it was not known when the store might reopen.
It's still not clear what sparked the shootings. Authorities are investigating his motive, but family members said Tyler — who once tweeted about killing "everyone I see" — was discharged from the Marines two years ago after suffering from depression and had never gotten over his mother's death about five years ago.
Authorities said Tyler left his job as an overnight clerk at the supermarket around 3:30 a.m. He drove off and returned to the store shortly afterward with a handgun and an assault rifle similar to an AK-47.
Tyler, who was dressed in camouflage gear, fired more than 16 rounds from his rifle — shooting first at an employee standing outside the closed store and blowing out windows, authorities said. He then went inside and shot at five other workers in an aisle, including LoBrutto and Breen.
Authorities say Tyler had worked at the store for less than two weeks.
Tyler's Twitter account, which had a photograph identified by family members as Tyler, interspersed posts about hating Marine life, expressions of violence, and his take on football, movies, women and other interests.
"smh is it normal to want to kill ALL of ur coworkers? Maybe but I'm actually in a position where I can, smh," he wrote in June 2009, using the handle (at)Tylerbkstyle and the abbreviation "smh" for "shaking my head."
Tyler tweeted months later about killing.
"I'm starting to see why plp go on killin sprees," he wrote. And these (obscenity) are reeeeeeally pushin my kill everyone I see button."
At the top of Tyler's Facebook page was the motto: "Be optimistic. All the people you hate are going to eventually die."
