Kmart security wrestles thief who carried gun in store

This guy didn't need a concealed handgun license (CHL) to carry out his crimes, and would have ignored a sign banning him from this store, just as he ignored all the laws he broke.

April 27, 2004
Dayton Daily News

Trotwood police shoot theft suspect
Ignored orders to drop gun, officials say

TROTWOOD | Trotwood police shot and wounded a shoplifting suspect Monday in the parking lot of Target at 2800 Shiloh Springs Road.

Officers said they pursued the 49-year-old man after receiving a report at 1:55 p.m. of shoplifting at the Kmart store across the street. Security guards had been fighting with an armed man outside the store, police Chief Mike Etter said. Trotwood police called for backup, and three marked cruisers and three unmarked police cars arrived.

The man ran across Shiloh Springs Road into the middle of the Target parking lot and held a handgun to his head, Etter said.

Officers warned the man to drop the gun, but when he did not surrender, they shot him with several rounds from a shotgun that fired bean bags, Etter said. The man then started running away and was shot in the shoulder by an officer armed with a 40-caliber handgun after he turned back toward the officers.

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"After they struck him a couple times and he didn't drop the gun, he turned back to the officers, still having the gun to his head," Etter said. "One officer fired and struck him once in the shoulder," he said.

The officer shot because police feared the man would flee to a nearby neighborhood with the gun, Etter said. "He fought security with a gun. He had a gun — he turned towards the officers — he was given several warnings to drop it. They tried (to be) less lethal, risking their lives, and he still didn't drop the gun."

The man was trying to get across the parking lot to an open area in the fence into the adjoining Glenbury Park neighborhood, Etter said. Clothes and other articles lay about 100 feet south of the opening in the fence.

The Target store is adjacent to the Marilyn E. Thomas Children's Center, 2900 Shiloh Springs Road, which serves about 400 pre-school children.

The bean bags deliver blunt force from a safe distance, Etter said. "In this case, they would have been justified to just shoot him and not put themselves in harm's way."

The man was conscious and talking to medics when taken by ambulance to a Dayton hospital, Etter said.

Etter declined to identify the officers involved in the shooting until they have time to contact their families. He said the officer who fired the handgun will be placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.