Two women shot to death by a man at an Elkhart , Indiana , grocery store may have known their attacker , police said Thursday . Police shot and killed Shawn Walter Bair , 22 , Wednesday to end the rampage at Martin 's Super Market . Although state police said they do not believe the three knew one another , State Police Sgt . Trent Smith told CNN on Thursday that investigators have received calls that Bair may have had some relationship to the two women . The nature of that relationship , if there was one , was n't immediately clear . The women 's names have not yet been released . According to Smith , Bair arrived at the store around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday armed with a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun and a large hunting knife . He walked around for more than 30 minutes before opening fire , Smith said . About a dozen people were in the store at the time , Smith said . According to police , he shot two women -- a 20-year-old shopper and a 44-year-old employee -- before police arrived to find him holding a store manager at gunpoint . They managed to distract him , allowing the manager to run away . But Bair also escaped down a store aisle , resulting in a search through the store that lasted between 40 and 60 seconds before police confronted Bair , who then pointed his handgun at them , Smith said . He declined to say if Bair opened fire on police before he was shot but said he appeared to be agitated . Police found the women 's bodies aisles apart inside the sprawling store . Tony Beltran told CNN affiliate WNDU that his mother was working at the store at the time of the shootings . `` She told me that she heard what sounded like gunshots , and everybody around her was telling her they heard gunshots , '' he told the station . `` Obviously , I was afraid . I said a quick prayer . '' Two Elkhart City police officers shot the gunman to death when he turned his weapon on them , according to WNDU . Employees at the store knew Bair or had seen him before , Smith said . Couple 's encounter with Florida theater shooting suspect . Suspect entered New Mexico school with sawed-off shotgun and plan . Police : Pennsylvania road-rage killer may strike again .
Gunman may have been victims of Indiana grocery store shooting , police said . They said the slain women were 20 and 21 . Police say they killed the suspect after finding him holding a store manager at gunpoint . Police identified the suspect as 22-year - old Shawn Walter Bair .