Store employees at a Walmart store in Wood River, Illinois, witnessed 20-year old Nicholas S. Middleton opening several realistic-looking Airsoft pellet guns and shoplifting them.
When police arrived, Middleton put one of the guns to his head. Police held back, and Middleton fled. Eventually police stopped Middleton, who continued to threaten to harm himself with the gun, until police found an opportunity and captured him.
From an article:
Steward said the man ran from store security after they allegedly witnessed him ripping open several Airsoft pellet gun packages. An Airsoft gun typically is designed to shoot plastic pellets with a compressed gas cartridge. They are non-lethal in nature but designed to look like a real weapon, Steward said.
When police finally took the man into custody, he had “four or five” of the guns in his possession, the chief said.
The suspect ran to his vehicle, a 1999 Ford Contour, in the store parking lot at 610 Wesley Drive, just as officers were converging. Immediately, he began pointing one of the guns at his head while outside his car, Steward said.
The situation kept officers at a distance, allowing the man to get in the car and drive away. He hit numerous curbs with his tires on the way out of the lot.
He fled north on Wesley Drive and got as far as Old Oak Road in Rosewood Heights before a front wheel came off his car. By that point, three of four tires were flattened from various impacts, Steward said.
Officers from Wood River, Bethalto, South Roxana, Roxana and Madison County were involved in the pursuit and surrounded his car, their own guns drawn, Steward said. The man continued to hold the gun to his head.
“At some point, he got angry and banged the gun on the side of the car, and it fell into the street,” the chief said. “That’s when they were able to take him into custody.”
Walmart. Save money. Die faster.
