Crime Law

Victim: Grocery store shooter said 'Screw you, pedophile'

TACOMA, Wash. — A woman accused of shooting three men in a Key Peninsula grocery store and then telling investigators she hated men has been charged with attempted murder and assault.

"There does not appear to be any understandable motive for this shooting," said Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist. "The defendant said she didn't even know the men she shot."

Prosecutors said Laura Sorenson entered the Peninsula Market Saturday, pulled a revolver out of her purse and made a comment about killing people.

Investigators said Sorenson fired until she was out of bullets, hitting three men -- a clerk, a developmentally disabled man and a 78-year-old man who was crouched down hiding.

"She said, 'Screw you, pedophile,' and -- it was rough," said a 20-year-old clerk who was grazed by a bullet in the shooting. He asked to not be identified.

Prosecutors said Sorenson told investigators she decided to kill herself and wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone else first. She said she had been molested as a young child and hated men, police said.

Two of the victims were hospitalized. One victim is in critical, but stable, condition.

After Sorenson was out of ammunition and dropped the gun, she was held by a couple at the scene until deputies arrived and took her into custody.

"She was very hated towards men, like, 'You scum. I'm going to kill you all,'" the 20-year-old clerk said. "It was very frightening because ... I saw her face-to-face, holding her gun next to her hip, and I thought, 'Maybe this is it,' you know? I thought of my family.

"It was terrifying," the clerk added. "Something you find in nightmares."

Police said Sorenson obtained the gun, a .357 caliber handgun, from her grandmother's home.

According to court documents, Sorenson has been violent before. Twice in the same week last August, her mother called Pierce County Sheriff's deputies after Sorenson punched holes in walls, knocked down pictures and destroyed figurines. Her mother told deputies Sorenson is schizophrenic, and that she was having trouble getting her help.

Sorenson was charged with two counts of first-degree attempted murder and one count of first-degree assault in this weekend's shootings. She's being held on $500,000 bail.