Family of Kroger shooting victim says security guard didn’t protect her

The victim’s family said she was about two months pregnant at the time of the shooting.

Credit: Channel 2 Action News

Credit: Channel 2 Action News

The victim’s family said she was about two months pregnant at the time of the shooting.

The family of a pregnant woman who was shot in the stomach at a southwest Atlanta Kroger said she wouldn’t have been injured — and she wouldn’t have lost the child — if the security guard at the store had done his job, according to Channel 2 Action News.

The shooting happened inside the store at 590 Cascade Road on Thursday, AJC.com previously reported. Officers were dispatched just before 1 p.m. after receiving calls about a woman who had been shot in the torso, Atlanta police spokesman James White said.

RELATED: Woman wounded in shooting inside southwest Atlanta Kroger

The victim’s family identified her as 19-year-old Janese Carthon. They told Channel 2 she was about two months pregnant, but the child died due to the incident.

Police said two women were involved in a fight in the parking lot. Carthon walked into the store, and a man who was with the other woman followed her inside and shot her, Carthon’s aunt, Shakina Carthon, told Channel 2. Both the gunman and the woman ran away after the shooting.

Carthon’s aunt said a security guard was stationed outside the grocery store when the fight started and didn’t stop it.

Instead, he went inside, she said.

“He heard the altercation with them and walked right past them,” she told Channel 2.

Then, when the shooting started, the security guard ran outside instead of helping her injured niece, Carthon said.

A spokesman for Kroger said in a statement that it is working with Atlanta police to respond to the allegations against the security guard, Channel 2 reported.

“She is frustrated ’cause she lost the baby. She’s frustrated because security walked past her the first time,” Shakina Carthon said of her niece.

Janese Carthon is recovering at Grady Memorial Hospital. Police have not found the gunman or the other woman.

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