Gunman kills two at Oregon supermarket after publishing intent to commit a mass shooting online

Ethan Miller, the white gunman who shot two people dead with an AR-15 on Sunday, kept a two-month long online diary chronicling the decline of his mental health

By Edward Era Barbacena

Two people were killed and another two injured Sunday night at a Bend, Oregon Safeway supermarket when a gunman opened fire in the store.

The shooter, identified as 20-year old Ethan Miller, killed 84-year old Glenn Bennett and 66-year old Donald Surrett, an employee at the store. Surrett was fatally shot after confronting Miller. It is believed that his intervention saved lives as he prevented the gunman from continuing his shooting spree. Miller was found dead by police shortly after, most likely taking his own life. 

Witnesses report that Miller began firing from outside the store, killing Bennett at the entrance, before continuing into the Safeway where he continued to spray bullets before being confronted by Surrett toward the back of the store. 

Miller lived in an apartment complex behind the Forum Shopping Center where the Safeway is located. People who knew Miller also reported that he had worked at the Safeway for a period of time before the shooting. 

Police reports indicated that Miller began shooting as he exited his apartment complex and continued into the shopping center parking lot and the store. In total, the incident lasted four minutes. Police responded to the shooting within three minutes of receiving 911 calls. 

When police arrived they found Miller dead with an AR-15 rifle and shotgun near him. A search of the shooter’s car also found a sawed-off shotgun and three Molotov cocktails. A search of Miller’s apartment discovered additional stores of ammunition. 

Police spokesperson Sheila Miller stated that police had “no evidence of previous threats or prior knowledge of the shooter.”

Miller had made his plans long ahead of time however, revealed in a series of posts on the website Wattpad, which were made public Sunday night by an anonymous account for 12 hours. The posts have since been removed but several passages were documented by reporters before they were deleted. 

In his posts, Miller declared his anger at society and his desire to die. He regularly referred to death as “peace” and states “I’m so FULL OF RAGE!! I’m just fucking Angry at the World and everything in it and It’s gonna be so fucking nice to just watch it all Burn.”

He referred to himself as a “quiet kid with anger issues” and as a “Time Bomb. Ready to Blow!” He also blamed the stress of anti-COVID measures and family issues for his inability to find a girlfriend. 

“I am responsible for this,” he said, “but I was turned into a monster. I created this Tragedy. But Society created Me.”

Miller’s motivations are not entirely clear, but he appears to have been driven by a suicidal fantasy in which he would enact as much violence as possible on the world. He repeatedly referenced the 1999 Columbine school massacre as an inspiration but attempted to separate himself from the “typical” mass shooter. 

“I feel like this shooting is gonna be a bit DIFFERENT though,” he said. “Because I’m not like the typical Mass Shooter. I’m different I’m not doing this for ‘Fame’ or to ‘Get Revenge.’ I simply just want to DIE and leave a Lasting Impression and VIOLENT mark on this World on my way out.”

His original intention was to carry out his shooting at his former high school, Mountain View High School, on September 8, the first day of classes. In his manifesto, he planned “AT LEAST 20 Dead but I might just Kill up to 40+ if I have the time. I Will Not Stop Until Police Arrive. Although I do Plan on Leaving SOME Survivors...To Tell Their Stories of course.”

He continued: “The Gravity of it all is just indescribable. It’s going to be a Spectacle. Once Again I’ll say that it will be my Magnum Opus.”

Miller suddenly changed his target to the store as he could not “wait any longer.” 

Central to Miller’s deranged manifesto is a complete disregard for human life and a perverse libertarian ideal of dying in a way that he chooses, specifically by causing as much death and destruction as possible, the prospect of which he relished. 

“Suicide is not nearly as tragic as people make it out to be,” he wrote. “We should be able to have control over our own Deaths and should be allowed to go out on our own terms I know for a FACT that where I go after this life will be a hell of a lot better for me then it is here. I’m not a conformer in any way shape or form.”

Despite Miller’s distressed state of mind, he never mentioned any attempt to seek help for his mental state while expressing a clear understanding that his planned actions were reprehensible.

“I’m Evil. Plain and Simple. That is literally the only answer here. My Head doesn’t work right it never really has. I just don’t fit in with this world.”

Miller’s disturbing disregard for human life and his anger at society at large is a common thread in mass shooting events. Troubled people, in need of help, turning to mass violence as a solution to their perceived problems.