RICHLAND — Instacart and its workers have more than doubled the donations being made to the family of the Instacart shopper killed in the shooting at Kroger’s Fred Meyer in Richland Monday.
Instacart donated $50,000 to the GoFundMe account set up to help the family of Justin Krumbah, including to pay for his funeral.
By noon Thursday the account had reached $100,000.
Other donations, many of them for $5 to $25, poured in as dozens of Instacart shoppers, former shoppers and their families across the nation contributed to the fundraiser after Instacart sent an email to its shoppers.
Many posted their shopping locations — New York, Texas, Florida, California, Alabama, Ohio, Oklahoma, Kentucky.
Instacart shoppers
“Fellow Instacart shopper. I just donated all my tips from today for your family, thank you for giving us shoppers a good reputation and for helping so many stay safe at home during the pandemic,” said Michael Mangiamele when he contributed to the account.
“It could have been any of us. End the violence,” posted Betsy Carr with her donation.
Michael Leader donated and posted “This is scary as a shopper we are in the stores more than your average human and that we could just as easily be in the wrong place wrong time!!”
Such violence should not be happening, especially as a random act, he said.
“(Y)ou did nothing wrong that day, just a shopper minding your own and some guy mad at the world ends it in a second,” he posted.
Another shopper, Paul Rosales posted. “It breaks my heart to hear a hardworking man trying to support himself was taken in such a violent way. No one deserved what happened to him.”
“The Instacart shopper community mourns for him,” posted Crystal Onyema. “May justice be served to this demonic individual who committed this horrible act.”
A single mother, who said gigs at Instacart and other shopping and delivery services were her full-time work to support her family and donated $5.
“Being able to stand with my fellow workers, even with this small donation, and support one of our own is an honor and privilege,” she said.
Another single mom said she sometimes has to bring her children with her when she shops and she worries everyday about what could happen in stores.
Instacart donates groceries
Instacart left this message with its $50,000 donation — “To the Krumbah family, On behalf of the entire Instacart community, our hearts are with you during this unimaginably difficult time. We’re thinking of Justin and we’re here to support you. “
It also is providing Krumbah’s family — his mother and each of his five siblings — a year of free groceries and access to mental health support.
Instagram chief executive Fidji Simo said that the violence at the Richland Fred Meyer was “truly incomprehensible.”
“We’ve reached out to Justin’s family to offer our support and ensure they have the resources they need during this incredibly difficult time,” Simo said in a statement.
“We’re also in touch with members of the Instacart shopper community who were in the Richland area at the time of this incident to make sure they have the time and resources they need as they work to process and recover from these terrible events,” he said.
The company emailed local customers soon after the shooting and followed up with calls.
Instacart has been working with law enforcement and with Fred Meyer to provide any help possible during the investigation, Simo said.
Instacart safety program
Instacart says on its blog that in November it started a new Shopper Safety Alert program that notifies its shoppers if there is a critical incident in their area so they can avoid the situation.
If shoppers are in the middle of an order, the app may automatically pause the order to prevent shoppers from entering the area of the incident.
In the Richland Fred Meyer, the incident started when Krumbah was shot in a store aisle, where he died. The shooter next fired and hit Mark A. Hill, a Fred Meyer employee, at least twice near the customer service counter before leaving the store.
Hill was carried out of the store to waiting paramedics and taken to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland. He had surgery there Monday and a second surgery was planned for Wednesday afternoon, according to Fred Meyer co-workers.
Krumbah, 38, was remembered by Fred Meyer employees and the customers he often chatted with in the store’s checkout lines as outgoing and friendly.
He took pride in doing the best job possible, they said.
“(We) visited about how you enjoyed Instacart and how you approached it with an outstanding work ethic,” one woman posted on his Facebook page after his death, saying she had recently chatted with him at Fred Meyer. “My day was made by your positive, can do attitude.”
He also worked as a mechanic.
Late Monday night, Aaron Christopher Kelly, 39, was apprehended as a suspect in the shooting on Interstate 90 between Spokane and Sprague, Wash.
He is being held in the Benton County jail on charges of premeditated first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. Bail is set at $1 million.
