Justice Served -- Dollar Store Drama: Customer Shoots and Kills Gunman

By Lina Batarags, Fri, January 17, 2014



In an incident that lasted less than five minutes on Thursday, a man walked into a Dollar Store in Orrville with a gun and forced the cashier and a customer to head into a back storage room at gunpoint. Upon entering the room, the customer, who had a gun concealed in his holster, turned around and shot the gunman in the chest.

Police arrived on the scene, and the gunman was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was injured.
Several customers had been in the store when the gunman first arrived, but they, like others who had been heading into the store, fled when they saw the gunman “waving a gun.”

The law stipulates that no permit is needed in order to open carry a weapon; however, a sign on the door of the store proclaimed that open carry of a weapon was strictly prohibited.

While both men involved in this incident were clearly both carrying weapons, Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman Jr. has noted that the customer’s gun “was concealed and inside a holster.”

And, to carry a concealed weapon – as the customer was doing – a permit is required. Investigators are yet to reveal whether or not the customer had a valid concealed carry permit.

No charges have been filed against the customer. Because both men were carrying guns – the first openly and illegally in a store that prohibited open carry, the second carrying a concealed weapon, possibly without a permit and therefore also possibly illegally – a grand jury is set to review the police department’s findings.

“You have one individual waving a gun and you have another who shoots the one waving the gun. Some people say that’s justifiable. Then you’re going to have some who says it’s not,” Huffman said in an interview.

The store’s security video has yet to be released.
The gunman’s motive remains unclear. Huffman has expressed his doubts that it was a robbery; words were exchanged between the gunman and customer, but none of them mentioned “robbery” or “hold up” or “money.”

My hat is off to the customer that protected the employee, himself and possibly others in the store or in the vicinity of the store! I bet the next guy that thinks about robbing a Dollar Store will think twice and go back home.

Hurray to the customer!!!!

Just a bit of clarification:  this story took place in Dallas County in Alabama
not Texas.  Texas has only concealed carry and not open carry of handguns.

Thanks Merlynsdaddy !