In a decent neighborhood in Mandeville, Louisiana, an unidentified store clerk was attacked by an aggressive customer at a gas station. A firearms instructor on the scene — openly carrying his .40 caliber pistol in a holster — felt compelled to assist the store clerk in de-escalating the situation. But the aggressor would not stop. Instead, he kept on increasing the level of attacks. From theadvocate.com . . .
The shooter tried to assist by urging Breland to leave the store . . .
Breland walked out again but then returned and threw what appeared to be potato chips at the clerk. The shooter followed Breland outside to get the license plate from Breland’s white minivan. Breland got out of the minivan and physically attacked the shooter, Ruple said.
With nowhere left to retreat, and faced with an attacker who was aggressively attempting to disarm him and obtain his firearm, the open carrier used his .40 caliber pistol. From wdsu.com:
Investigators said surveillance video inside the store shows Breland trying to grab hold of the customer’s firearm. The customer ordered Breland back once more and told him he would shoot if he did not stop.
The customer retreated into a corner of the store while he was being attacked. Officials said with nowhere left to retreat, he shot Breland once. Breland did not stop attacking the customer, who fired another two rounds until Breland fell to the ground, the Police Department said.
According to nola.com, Police Chief Rick Richard said the customer was lawfully carrying the firearm on his side in plain view. “Louisiana is an open-carry state. The guy was straight-up legal,” the chief said. He was not charged.
I haven’t been able to find the video anywhere on the internet. The descriptions are consistent. As one police officer commented, he couldn’t understand why the customer insisted on attacking an obviously armed man. He attacked when the gun was in the holster. He attacked when the gun was drawn. He paused after he had been shot once, then he continued to attack and was shot twice more in the chest.
Clearly, this attacker did not “shoot the open carrier first.” However, he was not deterred by the presence of the firearm, either. It’s hard to see how the events would have occurred differently if the instructor’s pistol was concealed until he drew it.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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