Whitehall police officers were dispatched around 5:45 p.m. Thursday to a reported shooting in the area of the Kroger at 3675 E. Broad St., inside the Town and Country Shopping Center. A suspect was quickly located and taken into custody, and police say no injuries were reported.
According to the Whitehall Police Department, officers responded to the area near the Kroger after reports of gunfire and located a suspect a short time later. As reported by 10TV, police identified the suspect as 28-year-old Darious Palmore using video surveillance alongside the department's Axon Fusus and Flock camera systems, and he was apprehended a few blocks away in Columbus.
Whitehall Police Division Lt. Tanner Williams said the cause of the gunfire remains under investigation, but that police determined there was no ongoing public safety threat, the station's report notes. Authorities urged anyone with additional information to contact the department.
Cameras Across the City Fed Officers Live Footage
The rapid arrest traces back to Whitehall's investment in real-time surveillance infrastructure. Per records from the City of Whitehall and the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Atlas of Surveillance, the Whitehall Division of Police runs the Connect Whitehall program, powered by Axon Fusus, alongside 25 Flock Safety license plate readers that monitor real-time security camera feeds from local businesses across the city.
That integrated crime center links private commercial video feeds directly to police, allowing officers to track a suspect's movements without waiting on witness accounts alone. Axon's own public safety reporting, published in April 2025, notes that Whitehall was among the early central Ohio adopters of cloud-based Real-Time Crime Center technology connecting field officers to live footage in real time, with Lt. Williams previously highlighting the department's use of that system.
Not the First Shooting at a Whitehall Kroger
Thursday's incident is not the first time gunfire has broken out at a Whitehall grocery store. 10TV reported that a shooting occurred in the parking lot of this same Kroger location in October 2022, resulting in felonious assault charges against a 36-year-old woman in an incident involving two people who knew each other.
In December 2024, two men were charged with felonious assault after firing shots outside a separate Whitehall Kroger on South Hamilton Road, striking a father who was holding his infant child in the face; the child was unharmed, according to 10TV's earlier coverage. Together with Thursday's shooting, the incidents mark a third gunfire episode tied to Whitehall grocery store properties in roughly four years.
A Historic Shopping Center Faces a New Chapter
The Town and Country Shopping Center itself carries a deep local history. According to corporate records from developer CASTO, the complex opened in 1949 and is recognized as one of the nation's earliest suburban regional strip shopping centers, originally developed by Don M. Casto as a landmark central Ohio retail hub.
What sparked Thursday's gunfire remains unclear, and it is not yet known what charges, if any, prosecutors may pursue. Under Ohio Revised Code Sections 2923.161 and 2923.162, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure or on prohibited commercial premises can carry severe penalties, including potential second-degree felony charges, though such statutes require proof of knowing intent. Whether Kroger or Town and Country's management plan any additional security measures at the property has also not been addressed publicly.
Part of a Busy Year for Whitehall Police
The department handles a heavy workload citywide. City of Whitehall records show the Whitehall Division of Police dispatches roughly 33,000 calls for service annually across its Administrative, Operations, and Detective Bureaus, operating under a multi-year strategic initiative aimed at reducing violent crime.
Whitehall police have made headlines for several fast-moving cases this year, including a February incident in which 13 suspects were arrested after a street shooting involving teenagers, and a May case in which officers arrested a man over threatening social media posts targeting schools. Thursday's swift arrest near the Town and Country Kroger adds to that recent record, even as the motive behind the gunfire remains under investigation.
