A tense situation at an Indiana auto parts store ended with a suspect being shot by a customer on Thursday night; an act that police in Terra Haute describe as a shooting in defense of others.
The incident began around 8 p.m. Thursday night, when a irate man walked in to the shop with a chip on his shoulder and squared off with one of the store’s employees.
Upon investigation, officers learned that the suspect arrived at O’Reilly Auto Parts to dispute a recent trespass order. THPD says the suspect was told to leave and refused which led to a brief physical altercation. Police say, the suspect then returned to their vehicle, retrieving what was believed to be a handgun and pointed it at an employee.
Before we go any further, let’s pause for a moment to consider the abject stupidity of going someplace you’ve been legally barred from entering to start an argument about not being allowed inside. At the very least this was going to end with the suspect in question being arrested and held, however briefly, behind bars.
As it turns out, however, jail wasn’t the first stop for the irate individual who threatened the employee with a gun.
THPD says a nearby customer who was working on his vehicle and was legally carrying a firearm, intervened to defend the employee and shot the suspect multiple times. Police say, the suspect then fled in a vehicle driven by a family member. Officers later found the vehicle and the suspect at a local hospital. The suspect was transferred to an Indianapolis-area hospital and is currently in stable condition.
Police haven’t released the name of the suspect in question, but they did reveal the cherry on top of the suspect’s sundae of stupidity; the gun he pointed at the employee was an airsoft gun, not an actual firearm. Of course the armed citizen who intervened had no way of knowing that, and reasonably believed that he was acting to protect the life of the O’Reilly employee.
The suspect is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but if the information provided from the Terra Haute police is accurate I think we can draw a couple of conclusions, starting with the presumption that the individual in question isn’t the brightest bulb on the dashboard (feel free to substitute your own automative-related analogy in place of mine).
It’s beyond dumb to contest a no trespass order by going to the place you’re not allowed to trespass. At that point it’s a legal dispute, and the store employee doesn’t have the power or authority to rescind that order on their own to begin with. It’s even more idiotic to escalate the dispute to the point of threatening the employee with physical harm, and it’s downright stupid to brandish an airsoft gun in an attempt to scare them in a Constitutional Carry state where there are plenty of folks exercising their right to bear arms in self-defense and defense of others.
I can’t help but wonder what the suspect thought was going to happen when he walked back into the store with his facsimile firearm. Did he expect the employee to call up the judge who issued a no trespass order and tell them “never mind”? Was he hoping that by brandishing his airsoft pistol the staffer would simply submit and allow him to wander around the store without contacting authorities? What exactly was his end game?
Whatever it was, I’m pretty sure it didn’t involve getting shot and being driven to the hospital by a family member. He should be thanking his lucky stars that he’s still breathing despite the series of bad decisions he made on Thursday night, and hopefully he’ll have plenty of time to reflect on his choices behind bars.
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