Apex police release 911 calls from Super Target shooting

APEX -- Emergency dispatchers fielded nearly a half dozen calls from customers at the Super Target in Apex Sunday.

The frantic callers all nervously reported that they heard gunshots inside the massive store at Beaver Creek Commons Shopping Center.

But none of them had seen anyone shot, nor could they give emergency dispatchers in Apex a description of the shooter, according to 911 recordings made public this afternoon.

While hundreds of employees and customers fled the store, a cashier, Guadalupe F. Rosas, 58, was fatally wounded. When the gunshots stopped, a homeless, terminally ill man whom police say was responsible for the gunfire, Mervin Carroll Mims, 67, had turned the gun on himself and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Apex Police Department released the 911 recordings about 2:30 p.m. today.

Capt. Ann Stephens with the Apex police said this afternoon that incident reports in connection with the shooting have not yet been completed, but she said that more calls about the shooting were made to Raleigh's emergency communications center.

The Apex dispatcher asked the callers about injuries and a suspect description, and also tried to reassure the callers, telling them help was on the way.

"You got the call about the Target's gun shooting?" one lady asked the dispatcher.

"Yes ma'm," the dispatcher answered. "Is anybody hurt?"

"No, I haven't seen anybody come out with any blood or anything, and I can't give you a description," the woman caller replied. "I'm sorry."

By the time the gunshots ceased, police learned that Rosas, who lived with relatives in a nearby subdivision, was shot as she prepared to ring up customers at her register.

Rosas and Mims were romantically involved about five years ago. The relationship lasted about two years, police reported.

Police, however, have not said what they think was the motive for the shooting.

Rosas had worked at the store for the past two years and lived with her daughter, son in-law and grandchildren.

Police described Mims as a homeless man who lived in his truck.

Mims was a native of Florida and had lived in several places across the country before winding up in Guilford County and the Triangle.

He had prostate cancer and had been told it would be fatal, his daughter, Angela Mims, said Monday during a telephone interview from her home in Florida.

Angela Mims said she wasn't sure how long he was expected to live.

"There's no way to know," she said, and declined to discuss the matter. "He was a grandfather, and there are children here."

One caller told the dispatcher that a man had just shot a gun inside the store.

"You said he shot a guy inside Target?" the dispatcher asked.

"Yeah. Shot a gun, not a guy, a gun." the man replied.

It was between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a,m. At the point, the dispatcher summoned police.

"All units, all units," the dispatcher said, "gunshots inside Target, gunshots inside Target."