Eaton Township Weis Markets shooting

Eaton Township Weis Markets shooting
Show map of Pennsylvania Show map of the United States Location within PA / United States
Location	41°31′45″N 75°56′51″W / 41.5291°N 75.9474°W / 41.5291; -75.9474 Eaton Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Date	June 8, 2017 (June 8, 2017) 12:57 a.m. – 1:01 a.m. (EDT; UTC−04:00)
Target	Employees at Weis Markets
Attack type	Mass murder mass shooting murder-suicide workplace shooting
Weapons	Two pistol gripped 12-gauge Mossberg 500 pump-action shotguns (Only one used)
Deaths	4 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	0
Perpetrator	Randy Stair
Motive	Misanthropy Suicidal ideation Belief that he would meet characters from his animated web series Ember's Ghost Squad in the afterlife

In the early hours of June 8, 2017, employees at a Weis Markets supermarket in Eaton Township, Pennsylvania, United States, were stocking and closing the store for the night when 24-year-old employee Randy "Andrew Blazè" Stair barricaded the exits of the store and proceeded to shot and kill three of his co-workers before fatally shooting himself.

Stair arrived for his late-night shift at a Weis Markets store in Eaton Township, Pennsylvania, on the evening of June 7, 2017, at approximately 11:00 p.m.^[1] He proceeded to work for approximately an hour and 40 minutes while blocking several emergency exits,^[2] with pallets and other items.^[3]

Stair went back to the crew area in the rear of the store, blocked the remaining exits, then locked the automatic doors at the main entrance to the store. He then pulled out two pistol grip pump-action shotguns that he had concealed in a duffel bag,^[1] and walked around the store, killing three employees: Victoria Brong, Brian Hayes, and Terry Lee Sterling. He approach another coworker, Kristan Newell, who he decided to spare.^[4]

Stair proceeded to fire at glass and other merchandise in the store, and shot several small portable propane tanks, which failed to explode. Around this time, Newell managed to escape from the store and call 911.^[5] Whilst Newell was on the phone, Stair fatally shot himself. A total of 59 shots had been fired; all the shotgun rounds fired came from only one of the two shotguns he brought.^[6]

The shooting victims were identified as 26-year-old Victoria Brong, 47-year-old Brian Hayes, and 63-year-old Terry Lee Sterling,^[7] all of which were co-workers at the supermarket.^[8] Hayes was an United States Navy veteran.^[9]

Randy Robert Stair (September 17, 1992^[11] – June 8, 2017), also known online as Andrew Blaze, was employed at the Weis Markets supermarket for seven years and resided in Dallas, Pennsylvania, with his parents and brother.^[6] Stair has maintained a significant online presence, primarily through his YouTube channel, PioneersProductions, which he started in 2008, initially featuring short sketches and was highlighted in an episode of "Equals Three" by YouTuber Ray William Johnson.^[12] By 2014, citing depression, he shifted direction to launch the animated series Ember's Ghost Squad, inspired by the character Ember McLain from the Nickelodeon animated series Danny Phantom. Stair worked with a group of animators and voice actors in developing the series.^[12] The series involves a fantasy world featuring mostly female ghosts.^[13] Nine Twitter accounts based on the series' characters were created where the accounts carried on conversations.^[14]

Stair began to have suicidal ideation after learning about McLain's death from arson, and claimed in one of his videos that McLain wanted him to commit murder because her "Ghost Squad [needed] more souls."^[12] The death of his acquaintances between 2012-2013 sent him into a state of depression and thoughts about death.^[14] He began to no longer see himself aging beyond his twenties.^[3] Stair had felt disconnect from reality, holding beliefs that he didn't belong in the world and his series' characters are real. He had consistently desired to be with the series' characters, specifically one named Mackenzie West, who he believed to be his soulmate.^[14] He would wrote how he felt familar with elements of the series with beliefs that he's one of it's characters and he would join with them upon his death.^[13] Stair held misanthropist views late in life. He wrote in his journals about how he hated making friends, and his despise toward humans. Additionally, he also wrote how he wanted to kill as many people as possible.^[14]

He struggled with gender dysphoria which he described having "a female soul trapped in [his] body." He admitted in a video to his parents that he been cross-dressing on Wednesdays whenever them and his brother were out bowling, and wanted to undergo gender-affirming surgery. In Ember's Ghost Squad, Stair voiced Andrew Blaze, a "self-insert" character who identified as female despite her masculine first name;^[12] He claimed to believe the character was his true self.^[14] Stair harbored a strong fascination for Columbine High School massacre, in which he openly revered Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, referring to them as heroes and made references in admiration to them.^[12] He was an active user of internet forums dedicated to the massacre.^[14]

In the three to four months before the shooting, Stair created numerous videos documenting his plans and motivations for the shooting. Stair would also regularly posts hints of his plans on his social media accounts such as how he planned on doing "something massive" on his YouTube channel's ninth anniversary.^[13] On a video he created on May 11, 2017, he showcase a pair of pistol grip shotguns, which he dubbed "Mackenzie" and "Rachael", and discussed his plans.^[15] He also documented target practice with shotguns, a grand tour of the Weis Markets' store that he worked, and a coin flip which determined his decision to commit the shooting. He notes the victims he would kill were part of a "soul contract" for him to enter into his Ember's Ghost Squad's world.^[16]

On the evening of June 7, 2017, hours before the shooting, Stair uploaded his final video, "The Westborough High Massacre/Goodbye". This video began with him expressing his frustration over people involved with the video, followed by him loading shotguns and using one for target practice,^[3] and an animated sequence depicting Ember's Ghost Squad characters as school shooters turned into ghosts.^[17] Along with the video, he sent out links to multiple files and videos on a file-sharing website, including a series of videos, audio recordings, and journal entries labeled as "Suicide Tapes", a journal, a Microsoft Word document that listed multiple online accounts,^[17][13] and a purple spiral notebook scribbled with the words "Sandy Hook," "Dylan Klebold," "Eric Harris," "9/11," and "OKC," referencing other massacres. At 12:37 am of June 8, Stair texted his suicide note to his mother who was asleep.^[3]

The shooting garnered local and national media attention. On the evening of June 8, 2017, hundreds of people gathered at the Wyoming County Courthouse to hold a vigil to honor the victims, with eight pastors present.^[18] Becki Hayes, the sister-in-law of victim Brian Hayes, set up a GoFundMe campaign to pay for immediate expenses; Hayes was also featured on Nancy Grace's podcast Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.^[19]

Stair's mental health issues have been documented by those within the profession. Psychiatrist Matthew A. Berger said that many young killers who died by suicide, like Stair, were unable to tell the difference between fiction and reality. Jeanne Rosencrance, involved with the trauma services at the Lackawanna County district attorney’s office, states that Stair's perceived lack of help and acknowledgement from others in dealing with his gender dysphoria led him to seek revenge.^[14]

Several writers have documented Stair's online prescene in relation to planning his shooting. The Scranton Times Tribute's writer David Singleton wrote that Stair carefully avoid revealing his plans online although he post about his suicide and hints of "something big to come." Rosencrance said she found it difficult to fathom that none of his viewers had realized Stair's plans.^[14] Vice writers wrote how Stair's dump of files is designed similar to a press kit that would results the files being download and distributed by media publications after the shooting. The writers decided not to include them in effort of not contributing to Mass shooting contagion and tried to contact YouTube and Twitter to remove his accounts, with the former removing his account on June 10 and the latter still up at the article's time. The writers would criticized both platforms for not removing Stair's accounts imediately after the shooting and allowing his videos and posts to be spread through the internet.^[17]

In reaction to the shooting, the Weis Markets store involved was closed;^[20] a spokesperson said they were "deeply saddened by the events" and that "the safety of our associates, our customers, and the surrounding community [were their] top priority."^[21]

On June 14, 2017, Weis Markets announced the store would be reopened.^[22] The store was remodeled, and a re-opening ceremony took place on July 13.^[23] Many people who lived in the area questioned why Weis decided not to relocate the store; some said they would not even enter the remodeled store due to the shooting, while others accepted the supermarket chain's decision. One man said that it would have played into Stair's hands if the store relocated, arguing that he would have wanted the store to relocate and be avoided in aftermath of the shooting.^[24]

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