Mall Ninja On the Job

Looks like a security guard at a Roanoke J.C. Penney’s got a little overenthusiastic trying to apprehend a shoplifter by firing his gun into the air. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that neither J.C. Penney’s or the mall it’s located in hire armed security, so the guy probably packed the firearm on his own.

Now I can’t say a blame a guy for not wanting to take a bullet for a minimum wage security guard job at a mall. Given the job, I wouldn’t say packing a concealed pistol is unwise if he’s legally able to do so. But you’d think if you were defying corporate policy you’d exercise a little more judgement about when it is and when it isn’t appropriate to bring the gun into play.

Virginia has a statute for misuse of a firearm. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this applied to this guy. It should be applied to this guy.

8 thoughts on “Mall Ninja On the Job”

  1. I don’t shoplift. I also don’t stop when the products I’ve just bought set off the store’s alarms. I don’t show checkers my receipt (well, except at BJ’s club, because I agreed to do so when I signed the club membership application). Best Buy is especially bad about not deactivating the hidden alarm triggers.

    This will be double plus bad if the suspected shoplifter wasn’t an actual shoplifter.

  2. The security person appears to have been an idiot.

    But I very much doubt the JCPenney connection, more likely he was mall security and the exit from which the suspect exited was either JCPenney or adjacent to that store. I used to work at a Penney’s less than a decade ago, and the store security people did not even wear badges (they had ID cards in their wallet/purse) let alone guns – but mall security at the same location wore uniforms, badges, and guns.

  3. Considering nobody was hurt, this is hilarious. I wonder how the Segway works as a platform to shoot his pistol from. Did he graze his helmet as he shot upwards?

  4. Segway wouldn’t be a bad platform for shooting pistols from – after a decent amount of practice. Otherwise the recoil is going to send you into a spiral of overcontrol and overcorrection.

    I haven’t shot from one, myself; but I did get to take one on a tour around the fort at the Royal Dockyard on Bermuda. Biggest problem I had was overcorrecting for small control inputs; in fact I couldn’t stand still on it. That appears to be a skill learned in practice, though.

  5. He would have been better off firing it into the trauma plates duct taped to his back. Sure it’d be awkward but if it stops a .330 Win Mag it should provide a safe handgun backstop.

  6. What a maroon. Obviously, he as seen to many Hollywood cop shows. Now he stands to face, reckless discharge, discharging a firearm within the city, and more. If he was going to carry the gun, officially or personally, he should have learned when to use it. Oh, and now the shoplifter could probably sue him for mental distress or something. In any case, he’s unemployed for sure.

    In TN, even law enforcement may only use deadly force to stop a person fleeing a crime if they have a reasonable belief the person poses a danger to others and there is no other means of stopping them. Private citizens are prohibited from using deadly force in such situations.

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