Walmart Stabbing Suspect Randomly Attacked Shoppers, Witness Recalls Horrifying Scene

DISTURBING details about the homeless man who allegedly prowled through a Walmart and stabbed 11 people have been revealed.

Bradford James Gille had a series of unsettling encounters with law enforcement over the years, even before he was charged with storming a Michigan supermarket and assaulting customers on a Saturday afternoon.

The 42-year-old suspect was arrested after a brave bystander whipped out a gun and demanded that the crazed alleged attacker drop his weapon.

He is currently facing close to twelve assault charges, with police alleging he aimed to kill the individuals at the store in Traverse City, which is roughly four hours north of Detroit.

According to the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Office, Gille entered the establishment around 4:10 pm and loitered for nearly an hour before he began indiscriminately attacking people with a knife.

Terrified witnesses have described hearing screams erupt from the sales floor and running through the bloody scene as they tried to evade the deranged attacker.

Cops said that Gille used a “standard folding-style knife” with a 3.5-inch blade and released pictures of the blood-spattered weapon.

Gille was cuffed just three minutes after cops arrived at the scene with the help of citizens who stopped him at the entrance of the store, authorities said.

Eleven people aged 29 to 85 were rushed to the hospital after the mass stabbing, and some were in critical condition.

As of Sunday, 10 of the victims were still getting treatment, but all of them are expected to survive, according to medical officials.

SUSPECT’S CRIMINAL HISTORY

Gille has been in and out of the criminal justice system for decades, but many of his cases were either tossed or pleaded down due to mental health issues, court records seen by the Detroit Free Press show.

Cops received a court order to arrest Gille before the stabbing took place, but it’s unclear what he was wanted for, the Emmet County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

According to the order, Gille has no known address and is homeless. He also has a history of assault incidents and “controlled substance violations,” Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael D Shea said.

His run-ins with the law date back to 2002, online records show. One attorney who previously represented him argued that his mental health issues warranted formalized treatment.

In 2016, Gille was arrested for trying to dig up corpses with a shovel at Greenwood Cemetery in Petoskey, Michigan, cops said in an affidavit at the time.

After getting information from the suspect’s dad, they tracked Gille down and found him outside a jail. When he was quizzed about the incident, the suspect said he was worried about people being buried alive.

The affidavit states, “Defendant stated he dug up the grave because the person was buried alive, but that he was mistaken about the grave site and did not know who was buried there.”

“Defendant when asked about the other overturned grave stones stated he did that because he was angry that they were burying people alive.”

Gille was arrested and taken to a psychiatric hospital, where he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and given mental health treatment.

In 2017, he was found not guilty on charges of dismemberment and mutiliation of dead bodies and malicious destruction of tombs and monuments by reason of insanity.

Over the years, Gille has served other short sentences and has been charged with other offenses like felonious assault, domestic violence, assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of marijuana, and public intoxication, the Free Press reported.

Some of his charges were pleaded down or dismissed due to his mental health issues.

WITNESS HORROR

One shopper, Julia Martell, said that she was browsing the canned foods aisle when she heard yells and saw a man running through the pharmacy area, the New York Times reported.

She remembers seeing the attacker erratically shoving and stabbing people before suddenly changing course and heading directly for her.

Martell quickly sprinted away from the man and watched as he turned the other direction toward the entrance.

She said, “If anything, him not following me kind of scared me more because then you had no idea where he was.”

Martell described seeing “blood everywhere” when she was escorted out of the store, and saw a man lying on the ground.

BRAVE BYSTANDER

A viral video taken of the attack has captured Marine veteran Derrick Perry whipping out a gun and demanding the suspect to drop his knife in the Walmart parking lot.

Perry yelled out, “Drop it. Throw the knife now. Throw it away,” before the attacker finally complied and started backing away.

The brave Marine kept his gun pointed at the suspect until cops came up behind and cuffed him.

Perry was named by his daughter-in-law, who described him as a “true hero.”

“So proud of him for protecting so many today,” she wrote on a Facebook post.

Another witness, Michael Miller, described helping to stop the suspect after pulling his family to safety.

He walked in with his fiancée Julia Ling and their four children when screams rang out, NBC News reported.

Ling said that she threw their children behind a bread rack to hide them and watched in horror as the attacker stabbed one person in the produce aisle and another at the self-checkout.

The suspect noticed Ling and her children and lunged at them before Miller and others pushed him out of the building.

Although it’s unclear why Gille allegedly carried out the attack, officials are looking to pin him with a terrorism charge.

They believe the attacker was seeking to strike fear into an entire community rather than target specific individuals, Grand Traverse County prosecutor Noelle Moeggenberg said.

In a statement, Walmart said, “violence like this is unacceptable.”

“Our thoughts are with those who were injured and we’re thankful for the swift action of first responders,” the company said.