Walmart Employee In Arizona Arrested For Planning Attack On Store, Colleagues

Police in Prescott, Arizona, arrested a woman for attempting to set fire to the local Walmart store where she worked and to kill her colleagues, authorities said Sunday.

The incident occurred early Saturday, when police responded to a call from the store manager about a woman in the parking area with a rifle. They found 24-year-old Ebonice Johnson with a .22-caliber rifle, which she said she planned to use, according to police.

Johnson was involved in an argument with her colleagues during an early morning shift, police said in a press release. She was upset with her manager over how the handling of the situation and broke a cash register before leaving the store, the police added.

Following the incident, Johnson went home, got the rifle, a knife and a torch. Then she wrote on her computer she wanted to kill her co-workers and force law enforcement officials to kill her, the police added.

“While police were responding, Johnson attempted to load the rifle to no avail and decided to use the knife; however, she dropped it and was unable to find it in the dark. After the rifle and knife failure, Johnson decided to use the torch she had brought to burn the store down; however, by the time police arrived, the small pile of debris had self-extinguished,” Prescott police said, in the release.

Johnson was booked into the Yavapai County Jail on four counts of attempted homicide, arson and weapons misconduct.