GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Surveillance video from a Traverse Metropolis-area Walmart reveals a person abruptly stabbing a lady after which going at anybody shut sufficient with a knife within the July 26 assault that wounded 11 individuals.
Information 8 obtained the video Monday from the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Workplace by way of a Freedom of Info Act request. It reveals the attacker, recognized by deputies as Bradford Gille, within the retailer with a big inexperienced rucksack on his again. Within the video, he’s seen pulling one thing from his pocket — apparently the folding knife investigators later recovered — and approaching a lady from behind. A child was subsequent to her in her cart. The attacker slashed at her not less than twice as she tried to shove him away after which fell to the bottom.
From there, it is chaos.
Emergency companies reply after a number of individuals have been stabbed at a Walmart in Traverse Metropolis, Mich., Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse Metropolis Document-Eagle by way of AP)
This picture supplied by the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Workplace on Sunday, July 27, 2025, reveals the knife that authorities say was used to stab 11 individuals at a Walmart on Saturday, July 26, in Traverse Metropolis, Mich. (Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Workplace by way of AP)
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Within the video, the attacker is seen lunging at whoever is shut sufficient. Different prospects appeared at first confused about what was taking place earlier than they realized the hazard and ran away.
The video reveals the attacker stab one man within the torso, then slash at one other as he ran down the middle aisle. He lunged at a fourth sufferer repeatedly. He stepped right into a frozen meals aisle to go at one other. He stopped and turned to hit one other man within the produce space, jabbing at him not less than twice.
Sprinting towards the entrance entrance, the attacker finally dropped his bag.
Simply exterior, the video reveals, the attacker stabbed a lady within the again. She fell on her face within the crosswalk.
The 84-year-old sufferer of a stabbing at a Walmart in Traverse Metropolis on July 26. (Aug. 4, 2025)
“All of a sudden I got hit in the back. I thought pushed, like a stampede because of people coming out. I thought I got pushed harder than I’ve been pushed in my life. It felt like a truck hit me and I went straight down. My knees didn’t buckle or anything. I just went straight down,” the girl informed Information 8 within the days after the assault.
She was out of the hospital by then, regardless of the wound that the video reveals bled profusely. She had abrasions on her leg and a bruised proper eye. She requested to not be recognized by title.
After she fell, a stranger helped her up.
“Once I stood up, I appeared down and I used to be simply gushing in blood, and I had no clue the place it got here from,” she stated.
Traverse Metropolis Walmart stabbing survivor: ‘Nothing but pity’ for attacker
The Grand Traverse County Prosecutor’s Workplace listed the victims and their accidents:
a lady stabbed below her proper arm, injuring her kidney;
a person stabbed within the abdomen;
a Walmart worker stabbed within the left arm and beneath his left arm armpit, who suffered injury to an artery and nerves in his left arm;
a lady slashed within the left eye who was additionally stabbed in the best torso, inflicting a liver laceration;
a lady stabbed in the best aspect, injuring her lung;
a lady stabbed alongside the left aspect of her jaw from her ear to chin;
a person stabbed in the best chest, injuring his lung and liver;
a person who suffered accidents to his left arm, left chest, together with a punctured lung;
a person stabbed within the higher proper arm, severing an artery;
a person stabbed in the best arm and his proper aspect, exposing his intestines;
and the 84-year-old girl stabbed in the best aspect of her again as she exited the shop.
After the final sufferer went down within the crosswalk, the video reveals a bystander ram the attacker with a buying cart, operating out of his sandals.
Matthew Kolakowski, a former U.S. Marine from Kent County who was up north on trip, beforehand informed NBC Information he was the one that rammed the attacker and stepped out of his footwear. He described “mass panic” as a Walmart employee shouted to prospects that there was a person with a knife.
“It was just like seeing someone that’s got a demon in him or something,” Matthew Kolakowski described the attacker. “Like a possession. ‘Cause it just didn’t look like a normal person at all. He just looked far out, far out from where his mind was.”
He and different bystanders pursued the attacker, quickly supported by second former Marine who was carrying a gun. Finally, the attacker gave up.
“He stopped and hesitated and his eyes were just crazy. He slowly hesitated, closed the blade and then he kind of just set it down,” Kolakowski stated.
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Gille, 42, has been charged with 11 counts of tried homicide and a rely of terrorism. He has been ordered to bear a competency examination.
This picture supplied by the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Workplace reveals Bradford Gille. (Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Workplace by way of AP)
Gille’s mom informed Information 8 he had a protracted historical past of psychological sickness courting again to his early teenagers. She stated she blamed the psychological well being system.
The lady who was stabbed stated she feels pity for the attacker, saying she was conscious of his psychological sickness.
“I hope that he can stay on his medication. I hope that he’s incarcerated, not incarcerated in a jail. I don’t think a jail is any place for him to be. But a state hospital like we used to have in Traverse City that was really run well once upon a time. We need to go back to something like that,” she stated.
For now, Gille is jailed on a $1 million bond.
—Information 8’s Ken Kolker contributed to this report.
