Two men who shot up Idaho Walmart with BB gun taken into custody by police
Tom Boggioni
28 Dec 2014 at 18:20 ET
Two men were arrested after shooting up a Walmart with BB guns in Idaho (Post Falls Police Department)
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Two Idaho men were taken into custody without incident after shooting up a Walmart with a BB gun, the Coeur d’Alene Press reports.
Users of social media have claimed the arrest of the two men — who were not identified — stands in contrast to an incident at a Ohio Walmart in August involving an African-American man, John Crawford, that left him dead after police shot him while he stood in an aisle holding a BB gun he had removed from a shelf.
According to Idaho police, the two intoxicated men walked into the Post Falls Walmart and proceeded to remove BB guns from boxes, before loading one and firing it four times while in the store.
Walmart store security contacted police, saying the two men “started shooting the gun in the store and made comments that they were going to shoot the store up.”
According to one Walmart loss prevention employee, the men approached him and asked if he wanted to join them.
The two men exited the store before police arrived, but officers and sheriff’s deputies were able to set up a perimeter and take them into custody without incident.
According to police, the two men were charged with aggravated assault, discharging a firearm in city limits, and malicious damage to property.
The shooting of John Crawford at the Ohio Walmart drew national attention, when surveillance video showed Crawford facing away from officers, talking on his cell phone, and leaning on the BB gun like a cane when officer came around a display and shot him.
Police had been called to the store by a panicky Walmart customer, Robert Ritchie, who claimed that Crawford had been “threatening” customers with a rifle. Ritchie later changed his story, saying, “At no point did he shoulder the rifle and point it at somebody,” although he continued to insist Crawford was “waving it around,” despite video not backing up his assertion.
An Ohio grand jury refused to hand down an indictment of the police officers involved in Crawford’s death.
Special Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier, appointed by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine called Crawford’s death a tragedy for his family and the officers who, he said, will live the rest of their lives knowing “they took the life of someone who didn’t need to die.”
The discrepancy in how the different men were treated by police was noted on Twitter by RightWingWatch Fan:
Three men walk into Walmart and pick-up a toy gun,two walk out alive
http://t.co/XnSXEGWoso @KagroX #blacklivesmatter pic.twitter.com/Q68Ti03jyk
— RightWingWatch Fan (@RWwatchMA) December 28, 2014
H/T Addicting Info
