Store Employee confronts/shoots shoplifters

[streaker69]

http://www.ldnews.com/ci_19487785

A 38-year-old Middletown man and a 34-year-old Jonestown woman were undergoing treatment Wednesday after one of them was shot and the other overdosed following a failed attempt at shoplifting at a North Londonderry Township shop on Tuesday evening, police said.

I'm not sure the employee is going to be good in this shoot. From what I heard on the radio today, and this article, he was trying to physically restrain the woman that was shoplifting when he was confronted with the woman's companion. The Employee was assaulted by that guy and then drew his firearm and shot the guy twice.

I'm not sure he was legal to restrain the woman to begin with, and the DA could view this as escalation.

[tl_3237]

http://www.ldnews.com/ci_19487785



I'm not sure the employee is going to be good in this shoot. From what I heard on the radio today, and this article, he was trying to physically restrain the woman that was shoplifting when he was confronted with the woman's companion. The Employee was assaulted by that guy and then drew his firearm and shot the guy twice.

I'm not sure he was legal to restrain the woman to begin with, and the DA could view this as escalation.

Based solely on the news item, he was:

18 Pa CSA 3929 Retail theft.


(d) Detention.--A peace officer, merchant or merchant's
employee or an agent under contract with a merchant, who has
probable cause to believe that retail theft has occurred or is
occurring on or about a store or other retail mercantile
establishment and who has probable cause to believe that a
specific person has committed or is committing the retail theft
may detain the suspect in a reasonable manner for a reasonable
time on or off the premises for all or any of the following
purposes: to require the suspect to identify himself, to verify
such identification, to determine whether such suspect has in
his possession unpurchased merchandise taken from the mercantile
establishment and, if so, to recover such merchandise, to inform
a peace officer, or to institute criminal proceedings against
the suspect. Such detention shall not impose civil or criminal
liability upon the peace officer, merchant, employee, or agent
so detaining.

[streaker69]

Based solely on the news item, he was:

Ok, thanks, I hadn't know about that. I just know that many times LP agents won't attempt to restrain, but I guess that's more due to company policy than anything else.

[bac0nfat]

Not sure if I would have done the same thing, but I can't blame the employee for his actions. Hopefully he doesn't end up in jail or loose his rights over this.

[CenterTree]

Interesting that the article DIDN'T mention whether or not the employee has a "permit to carry". They usually always throw that in the story somewhere.

---------------

I too was NOT aware of the law given above. I worked security for a large retail chain store years ago and we were always told that we COULD NOT detain a customer (even if we knew they had stolen items). We were instructed to call police and gather info. If we harmed someone during a "theft stop" the store may be sued. (we were told)

I suspect that was store policy only.

( eeew, I don't miss that job)

[IV_Warrior]

I suspect that was store policy only.

Could be store policy, large chains tend to have stores in multiple states and make uniform policies to cover their tail in all states....

[ViperGTS19801]

Interesting that the article DIDN'T mention whether or not the employee has a "permit to carry". They usually always throw that in the story somewhere.

Well, it's also entirely irrelevant - the employee was at his place of business and needs no license to have a firearm while there, or traveling between there and home.

[Shisno]

With the information provided I cant say for sure that it was a bad shoot. Just not enough information. The one thing we would need more information on is the male that was assaulting him. We don't know the size of the employee or the other male. We don't know to what extent the male was assaulting the employee. So with that said im going to have to assume the employee was probably in fear of serious bodily injury. It was a 2 on 1 situation anyways unless the employee handcuffed the female (I doubt it).

I would be very interested in learning more details. Hopefully more come to light.

As far as the employee restraining the shoplifter that is perfectly fine. I work loss prevention for a department store and our policy is that we can reasonably restrain someone. That means grabbing on the shoulders usually. But if the shoplifter escalates the confrontation then we are allowed to meet the same level. They run we chase, they start throwing punches then we get handcuffs on them any way we can. But we can not be the first to escalate things.

[Shadowline]

I'm not sure that shooting her accomplice meets the "may detain the suspect in a reasonable manner for a reasonable time on or off the premises" portion of the statute.

[Shisno]

I'm not sure that shooting her accomplice meets the "may detain the suspect in a reasonable manner for a reasonable time on or off the premises" portion of the statute.

Well obviously no. But my point was we do not know to what extent the male was assaulting the employee. It could have been that the employee was in fear of serious bodily injury. We just don't know. Not enough information.

The male could have thrown one punch then got shot or the employee could have been on the ground while the male was kicking in his face. We just don't know.