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Thursday, September 13, 2012

911 calls released from Pathmark shooting

Eyewitness NewsOLD BRIDGE -- Employees at a New Jersey supermarket can be heard on 911 calls begging for police to send help as a gunman goes on a rampage.

The calls from the Aug. 31 shooting at the Pathmark in Old Bridge were released Thursday.

LINK: LISTEN TO 911 CALLS Several of the calls are from terrified employees trapped inside the store during the shooting. One female employee can be heard breathing heavily as she begs a police dispatcher to send help.

Other employees give the dispatcher eyewitness accounts of a fellow employee entering with a shotgun and firing. Authorities determined the gun to be an assault rifle.

Authorities say 23-year-old employee Terence Tyler shot two co-workers and then killed himself. Eighteen-year-old Cristina LoBrutto and 24-year-old Bryan Breen each died of a single gunshot.

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Friday, September 7, 2012

Old Bridge Pathmark reopens after deadly shooting

Eyewitness NewsOLD BRIDGE -- A New Jersey supermarket has reopened one week after an employee gunned down two co-workers before killing himself.

In a statement, the Old Bridge Pathmark says it is grateful for the community's outpouring of support and looks forward to serving residents.

Authorities said 18-year-old Cristina LoBrutto and 24-year-old Bryan Breen each died of a single gunshot while they worked the overnight shift last Friday. Authorities said 23-year-old Terence Tyler then killed himself. Tyler was discharged from the Marines in 2010 after suffering from depression.

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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Pathmark shooting victim laid to rest Wednesday

Eyewitness NewsOLD BRIDGE (WABC) -- One of the two people killed by a co-worker at a New Jersey supermarket was laid to rest Wednesday.

For a final time, the family and friends of Bryan Breen gathered to say farewell.

The service was filled with emotion, with the Old Bridge Funeral Home packed by those touched by Bryan's life and troubled by the senseless way he died. The 24-year-old Pathmark employee was the victim of rage from a heartless fellow employee who had no regard for human life.

Many of the mourners were clearly touched by the words offered during the brief service. Through the sadness and pain, this tragedy has brought many members of the Old Bridge community together.

Breen was shot along with his colleague, 18-year-old Cristina LaBrutto, while they were working early Friday morning in the Pathmark on Route 9 in Old Bridge. The shooter was 23-year-old Terrance Tyler, a troubled ex-Marine who took out his wrath on the innocent victims by blasting into the store with an AK-47. He fired at the first two people he saw before taking his own life with a handgun.

A wake for LoBrutto will be held Wednesday evening at Michael Hegarty Funeral Home in Old Bridge. Her funeral is Thursday morning at St. Ambrose Church.

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Vigil held for Pathmark shooting victims

OLD BRIDGE -- A vigil was held Sunday night for the young victims of a shooting of a shooting at a supermarket in New Jersey.

Hundreds of mourners gathered at the Pathmark in Old Bridge to remember store employees Cristina LoBrutto, 18, and Bryan Breen, 24.

Lourden Serrano was working the overnight shift with LoBrutto, putting new prices on food items, when horrific violence stormed into the quiet store. Somehow Serrano escaped. LoBrutto did not. Rosie Bojan is a customer in mourning. She says the other victim, 24-year-old Bryan Breen had a bigger than life smile, and touched her deeply. He, too was killed by a single bullet.

LoBrutto's family was allowed up to the front of the store while workers carted out all the flowers from the floral department for mourners to add to the site.

An autopsy shows they both died from single gunshot wounds.

On Friday morning, Terence Tyler shot two co-workers and himself, police said. The 23-year-old, clad in desert camouflage gear, opened fire at a Pathmark store in Old Bridge Township, authorities said.

Unhappy with his life as a Marine stationed in California, Tyler posed a question three years ago on Twitter: "is it normal to want to kill ALL of ur coworkers?"

Authorities are investigating his motive, but family members said Tyler was discharged from the Marines two years ago after suffering from depression and had never gotten over his mother's death about five years ago.

Authorities said Tyler left his job as an overnight clerk at the Pathmark about 3:30 a.m. He drove off and returned to the store shortly afterward with a handgun and an assault rifle, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said. About a dozen workers were in the closed store, putting new prices into a computer.

Tyler fired more than 16 rounds from his rifle - shooting at an employee standing outside and blowing out windows, authorities said. He shot at five other workers in an aisle, killing Christina LoBrutto, 18, and Bryan Breen, 24, the prosecutor said.

Tyler, who began working at the supermarket less than two weeks ago, then drew his handgun and killed himself, Kaplan said.

Several ammunition magazines were recovered along with the rifle and a .45-caliber handgun, he said.

"I do not believe that they were specifically targeted," Kaplan said of the two victims. "I believe everybody in the store was a target."

John Niccollai, president of a foodworkers union, said many of the employees escaped harm when an assistant manager directed them toward a back door.

Breen and LoBrutto were both cashiers. They normally worked day shifts, but pulled overnight shifts every few weeks to put in new price changes, Niccollai said. Tyler began work for Pathmark Aug. 20 as a night clerk, stocking shelves.

Pathmark worker Miranda Miranda said she steered clear of Tyler.

"The way he looked at me, he gave me an uneasy vibe," she said.

Miranda usually worked the overnight shift Thursday but said LoBrutto agreed to work the shift for her a few weeks ago. "That could've been me," Miranda said.

Tyler was discharged from the Marines in 2010, nearly two years in the service at Twentynine Palms, Calif., according to the Marines. The infantryman from New York City never served overseas, said Marine spokeswoman Capt. Kendra Motz. She wouldn't comment on the circumstances of his discharge.

Tyler's Twitter account, which has a photograph identified by family members as Tyler, interspersed posts about hating Marine life, expressions of violence, and his take on football, movies, women and other interests.

"smh is it normal to want to kill ALL of ur coworkers?Maybe but I'm actually in a position where I can,smh," he wrote in June 2009, using the handle (at)Tylerbkstyle and the abbreviation "smh" for "shaking my head."

Tyler tweeted months later about killing.

"I'm starting to see why plp go on killin sprees," he wrote. And these (obscenity) are reeeeeeally pushin my kill everyone I see button."

At the top of Tyler's Facebook page was the motto: "Be optimistic. All the people you hate are going to eventually die."

Christopher Dyson, Tyler's uncle, said Tyler left the Marines after suffering from depression. A cousin said Tyler had been hospitalized.

Tyler, who also lived in San Diego, left California in June for New Jersey, where he lived with his sister and uncle.

"He was a quiet cat, you know?" said Dyson, who works at the store and helped Tyler get a job there.

His cousin, Shanteya Dyson, said Tyler had not been the same since his mother died of cancer.

"That was his best friend. He was always a quiet guy. But he got more quiet. He really didn't speak at all. He was just blank," Dyson said.

Tyler spent the July 4 weekend drinking at Jersey shore bars with Manase Acheantong.

"We went out. We had drinks. He was a normal kid. He didn't start no fights. He didn't seem crazy," said Acheantong, 25, of Old Bridge.

Pathmark's parent company, Montvale-based Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., said the company was "deeply saddened" by the shooting and was cooperating with investigators.

LoBrutto and Breen both graduated from Old Bridge School. LoBrutto was a horn player in the school band and graduated this year, Schools Superintendent Timothy Brennan said. Breen graduated in 2006.

Jessica Ruano knew LoBrutto from school. "She was a really bubbly girl," said Ruano, 16. "She was silly. She was sweet."

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