Currents News Staff
Jerome Bridges can’t bring himself to take off his Tops Supermarket name tag.
“He killed so many innocent people,” Jerome said. “Every night, I’ve been going into the house crying for hours.”
He was at work in Aisle 14 when he heard the first gunshots and ran towards the break room in the back of the store.
“I told the customers to get inside some customers to get inside the break room and get down on the floor,” Jerome said. “I had to tell them to be quiet and just lay down on the ground because he was getting closer and closer to the back, to the point where he was actually shooting at the displays that are there like the milk display.
I mean he was really trying to hit whatever behind that wall because he had detailed plans of where everything was at. I just wanted to make sure I kept them customers and my other three coworkers very safe so even if I would have died, it would have been you know me dying protecting them.”
Police say the suspect gunman, an 18-year-old, self described white supremacist, killed 10 people and wounded three others. According to investigators, he planned his attack for months, eventually posting the detailed and disturbing plans on social media and made repeat visits to the store in March.
He has pleaded not guilty to first degree murder.
“I thought he was a lost shopper,” Jerome said. “So I just kept it going. I didn’t realize he was sitting up there scoping out the store for something like this. I don’t discriminate against nobody, but for him to be hateful of black people… it is what it is…”
Jerome says he was too scared to answer his phone while hiding in the break room for fear that the gunman would hear him. His son was calling him during the time because he knew his dad was at the grocery store.
“And I couldn’t answer the phone,” Jerome said. “He calls me every day now.”