Richland, WA
For 30 minutes Jenna Kline goes about her grocery shopping, filling her cart at the Richland WinCo.
She doesn’t seem to notice the man dressed in camo shorts and a black T-shirt as she passes him a couple of times, the store’s surveillance video shows.
He wandered into the store about 15 minutes after she did, walking around without a shopping cart or anything in his hands and stopping just once in the liquor section.
It’s about 7:30 p.m. on a Monday night and dozens of other men, women and kids are inside the big warehouse-style grocery store.
After a few minutes, Matthew D. McQuin leaves without buying anything. He pauses in front the store, then walks back inside seconds later, store video shows.
This time, he follows Kline when she crosses his path with her cart.
As she reaches for something on a shelf above her head, Kline doesn’t see the stranger pull a black gun from the small of his back.
The video shows McQuin holding it within a foot of her head, appearing to pull the trigger, but it doesn’t go off.
Kline seems to hear a sound behind her but still doesn’t realize that a man is trying to shoot her. McQuin starts to walk away, and she turns back toward the shelf near the front of the store.
But he turns back, aims again and at some point Kline is wounded in the head. But it doesn’t stop her.
The 33-year-old veterinarian falls to the floor then quickly scrambles around the corner and, in shorts and flip-flops still clutching her purse, Kline sprints down the next aisle.
McQuin starts to follow, still messing with the gun.
But he stops, retreats and then calmly walks toward the checkout stands with the .22-caliber Ruger pistol in hand.
The Umatilla truck driver would later tell investigators he believed Kline was part of a group out to get him and was about to spray him with a chemical, court documents show.
The footage is among more than 60 store video clips from the evening of July 30 that are part of the Richland Police Department investigation into the shooting. The clips were released under the Washington Public Records Act.
McQuin, 45, is due back in court next week after a nearly two-month delay while a state psychologist evaluated his competency to stand trial.
The Army veteran with a history of drug convictions in the mid- to late-1990s is charged with attempted first-degree murder.
And while the charge accuses McQuin of an intentional act, Richland police Sgt. Drew Florence said his victim was chosen at random.
And he praised the response of the Winco employees working on July 30.
Store video shows after Kline was wounded and ran away, McQuin walks to a checkout stand where a clerk was scanning a customer’s groceries.
She saw him coming with the gun and starts to raise her hands as if it were a robbery. But McQuin simply puts the gun on an empty conveyor belt, tosses his hands in the air and keeps walking.
He doesn’t leave, however.
McQuin stands in front of the checkout stands until employees direct him to a bench, where he waits until police arrive minutes later, the video shows.
Florence said that proved critical because officers initially believed they were arriving to find many victims with someone actively shooting inside.
“(The officers) were able to move right to where the threat was instead of searching the entire store,” he said. “We appreciate the assistance from the employees and other law enforcement agencies.”
At first, other customers clearly didn’t realize anything had happened, but when they do they can be seen rushing outside, abandoning carts filled with the merchandise.
As McQuin waits on the bench, a female employee moves the gun and then stands guard over it until police arrive.
The video also shows other employees clearing away paper bags at the end of a checkout aisle and leading Kline to sit down and give her first aid until paramedics arrive.
Kline was taken to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland and later released, expected back for surgery for the bullet left in her skull, according to court documents.