By Christina MacIntosh and Jeannette Boner | Mar 10, 2026
When Chad Horton went to Albertsons on Monday afternoon to pick up prescriptions, he wasn’t expecting to end up in a dairy cooler.
But, after police arrived, responding to reports of an armed person in the store, Horton and about 19 other shoppers headed there.
The store was busy at the time. Employees whisked customers out of aisles and through back entrances, away from an incident involving a person allegedly armed with a knife that unfolded at around 12:30 p.m. between the check-outs and the customer service station.
Horton and the others remained in the walk-in cooler for about two minutes. They fled through a nearby exit after hearing gunshots.
“I was like, ‘I’m not getting caught back in a cooler,’ ” Horton said. “It was a dead end with glass doors back there.”
The gunshots were non-lethal rounds fired by law enforcement to subdue the person, according to Lt. Russ Ruschill of the Jackson Police Department. There was no other gunfire, and the individual sustained self-inflicted injuries before being transported to St. John’s Health, Ruschill said. No one else was harmed.
The person in question was having a mental health crisis, Ruschill said. The officer fired non-lethal shots to prevent the person from further self-harm, said Wanna Johansson, a Town of Jackson public information officer.
As of press time Monday, it is unclear whether the police would press charges.
Ruschill declined to answer follow-up questions about the person’s medical condition, and was unable to answer additional questions about the incident before press time.
Before firing non-lethal rounds, a police offer told shoppers to exit the store, Horton said. No one moved until the officer repeated the command.
“We’re so used to guns and to these situations,” Horton said. “We get numb to all the tragedy.”
Unlike Horton, some other shoppers did not begin evacuating until they heard the gunshots. Most were unaware that it was the police who had fired shots. Several who fled the store were shaking, according to a witness.
By 1:15 p.m., shopping was again underway. Police had cordoned off a crime scene and remained on the premises.
The Jackson Police Department is in charge of the investigation. The Teton County Sheriff’s Office is providing assistance.
The incident is the third instance of law enforcement responding to a Jackson grocery store in the past six months.
In November, a man pulled what appeared to be a gun on a passerby in the Smith’s parking lot, though police found knives, not guns, in his car. In January, a Utah man allegedly pulled a gun on another man during a dispute in the Smith’s parking lot.
Macintosh, C. & Boner, J. (2026, March 10). Jackson cops use non-lethal rounds to resolve mental health incident at Albertsons. Jackson Hole News & Guide. https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/cops_courts/local/jackson-cops-use-non-lethal-rounds-to-resolve-mental-health-incident-at-albertsons/article_bf924c84-027a-44d8-8796-99c7029b33f8.html