Intrepid Wal Mart gun counter chronicler Seth Hendrix probably would have needed sedation (not to mention a clean pair of shorts) if he’d had the misfortune to have been filming one of his hysterical videos at the Muskogee, Oklahoma Wally World on Thursday evening. It isn’t known exactly what Everett Rowlands was trying to do, but it wasn’t anything good. He managed to break open the store’s rifle display, grab an M-4 (a machine gun!, a machine gun!) and tried to load it . . .
As muskogeephoenix.com details, the 911 calls tell the story:
“There were some loud bangs and now he’s got a gun and he’s telling people to ‘stay back, stay way back,’” one customer told a 911 dispatcher. “He’s back here in sporting goods, I think.
“It looked like he had a gun and he was trying to load it.”
But Wal Mart, like so many gun sellers, keeps trigger locks on all of their display guns. That gave a store employee a chance to wrestle the evil black assault weapon modern sporting rifle away from Rowlands. Unfortunately, that didn’t slow him down much. He then turned his attention to a shiny new Mini-14.
Seconds later, screaming can be heard in the background and the caller says the disturbance has continued.
“Uh oh, he’s doing it again it looks like,” the caller said. “They’re still having a problem here. Need to get someone here quick, he’s still breaking into cabinets trying to get guns. Need to get someone here now.”
But just like the M-4, the Ruger had a trigger lock on it, too. The store was evacuated without incident while Rowlands hid in a storage room before police moved in and arrested him. It’s possible that he was just distraught over a hair experiment gone tragically wrong, but the investigation is ongoing. Rest assured that if Rowlands’ motivations are ever revealed, TTAG will bring you the news.