Probably because the active shooter phenomenon came into national attention and focus after the event at Columbine High School, we tend to think of all active shooter events as occurring during the day, usually during normal school hours, or immediately before or after the school day. In reality, there are now more active killer (no longer active shooter due to weapons used and casualties caused by other weapons) attacks in businesses and public places than there are (generally) in schools. What we also tend to incorrectly assume, is that these active killer attacks occur during business hours. Malls, warehouses, distribution centers, etc. often are open late into the evening or have overnight hours.
That was the case when the attack occurred at the Ben E. Keith Distribution Center located on the Gulf Coast in Missouri City, Texas. An outlying suburb of Houston, Missouri City hadn’t previously seen such an attack. Interestingly, there would be another attack performed at a Ben E. Keith properly - that one in Albuquerque, New Mexico in November of 2018. On August 20 of 2018, Kristine Peralez went into the Ben E. Keith Distribution Center and shot two employees.
Kristine Peralez was 29 years old at the time of the event, and both she and her husband worked at the distribution center. Mr. Peralez was working at the time of the attack but no mention of a domestic motivation or attachment was made during the investigation - per reports and information available at the time of this writing. Reportedly, Mrs. Peralez was not scheduled to be working that shift and was off-duty at the time she committed the attack.
Kristine Peralez made entry into the facility just after 2 a.m. the morning of August 20, 2018. Inside the facility, she shot and killed the overnight manager, Francisco Reyes before shooting a fellow employee, Federico Janas, in the leg.
The police response was swift and law enforcement officers reportedly engaged Kristine Peralez in a gun fight before she was arrested. Prior to her arrest, she had been shot in the chest, but early reports didn’t indicate whether the wound was a result of the gunfight or self-inflicted. Mrs. Peralez was transported to a nearby hospital where she died as a result of her gunshot wound.
Standard procedure when a Missouri City Police Officer is engaged in a shooting was for the city to call in the Texas Rangers, which they did. The officer involved in the shooting was put on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. The autopsy later revealed that Kristine Peralez died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.
The post shooting investigation revealed that Kristine Peralez had made a “good bye” video addressed to her grandmother prior to committing the attack and in that video mentioned an unnamed individual for the violent attack she was about to commit. According to the video released, she said, “This is your fault. I’m sorry for everything. I didn’t want to end it like this.” What can’t be known is whether or not she intended to commit suicide during or after the attack or if that was an action she took spontaneously after being engaged by police. Further, with another 20 to 25 employees in the building, it’s impossible to know if Reyes was her only intended target, or if her primary target was another individual and Reyes was just the first person she got to.
As is standard after an active killer attack, the SWAT team from Missouri City PD entered and secured the building, searching it thoroughly for secondary or associated shooters before declaring it safe. Chief Mike Berezin commented that this active killer event (referring to it as active shooter) was the first ever in Missouri City, that it had been wholly contained within the Ben E. Keith Distribution Center and that no threat existed, or had in relation to this attack, outside the building.
The weapon used by Kristine Peralez was described as a “semi-automatic handgun,” with no further information give. Police investigators did state that part of the investigation would be to discover the origins of the weapon and how Mrs. Peralez came into possession of it. No mention in the available reports is made about whether or not Mrs. Peralez had any previous criminal history or any restrictions regarding the possession of a firearm.
In a future column, we’ll review the attack that occurred at the Ben K. Keith facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico later that year, in November 2018.
Joshua Borelli
Joshua Borelli has been studying active shooter and mass attack events over the course of the past several years, commensurate with receiving training on response and recovery to natural disasters and civil disturbances. Joshua started to outline this series of articles in an attempt to identify commonalities and logistical needs patterns for response.
