Man shoots deer in Pennsylvania Walmart parking lot

Occurred November 26, 2012.

(UPDATED: see below)
On the first day of deer hunting season last November, in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, Arcangelo Bianco Jr., 40, was in town doing some banking when he saw a 10-point whitetail deer run through the Walmart parking lot.  

He grabbed his hunting rifle out of his car and immediately shot "several shots" at the deer, pursuing it through the parking lot and across the street until he killed it.  He then took off with the carcass and took it away.

He is now being charged with reckless endangerment and hunting law violations

From an article:

According to the commission, Bianco fired several rounds at a hapless white-tailed deer from within the Burrell Township store’s parking lot and bagged the animal on the other side of Old William Penn Highway (Old Route 22) one afternoon last November. 

The most serious of the charges he faces is a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment. He also was slapped with five summary offenses, all hunting law violations, including hunting without a license, shooting on or across highways and unlawful killing or taking of big game. 

“Obviously, we can’t have someone running through a Walmart parking lot shooting at a deer,” said Jack Lucas, the wildlife conservation officer who investigated the incident. 

But the one thing Bianco does not stand accused of is hunting out of season — the incident reportedly took place on Nov. 26, the first day of antlered deer season with regular firearms. 

On that day, Bianco had driven to the Burrell Township shopping plaza to do some banking, Lucas said. 

It was around 2:10 p.m. that Bianco spotted the buck running through the parking lot from the cab of his pickup truck, Lucas said. 

And it apparently was some buck. Ten points, if memory serves, Lucas said. 

The deer ran around a corner of the store, and Bianco hopped out of the truck, gun in hand, and “began firing multiple rounds at the deer,” Lucas wrote in charging documents. 

“The defendant pursued the deer through the parking lot and across Old William Penn Highway, where he killed the deer. The defendant then loaded the deer into his vehicle and took it to a meat processor for butchering,” he said.

Luckily no one was injured (other than the deer).

(a related article)

UPDATE (5/6/13):  When Bianco did the shooting in the Walmart parking lot, he fired and hit the deer using a handgun, when the deer was next to a tractor-trailer that had people in it unloading goods at the time.  The deer then dropped across the road in the yard of a woman's home.  He put all of these people in danger, yet blithely contends that he shouldn't be charged since he didn't know the people were there.  From an article:

At the hearing, employee Domenick Hewitt testified he was loading the trailers when he saw Bianco's pickup stop abruptly in the lot then speedily reverse toward the side of the store. 

"After the truck stopped, I saw this guy jump out, and he started running along the side of the store, where the trailers were, and he pulled out a handgun and fired two shots at the deer," Hewitt said. "At first I didn't know what he was doing." 

Blood smears found on a trailer showed the deer was nearby when Bianco fired, Wildlife Conservation Officer Jack Lucas testified. 

Defense attorney Jason Huska argued the reckless endangerment charge was unwarranted because he contends Bianco couldn't have known any workers were in the trailers when he fired. 

But Indiana County Assistant District Attorney Jay Carmella said it didn't matter whether Bianco saw the workers in the trailers, and said there were also many people in the parking lot and noted the woman who owned the home where the deer finally dropped also came out of her home. 

"He had to know there was a risk of firing a gun there," Carmella said. The district judge agreed in ordering Bianco to stand trial.

Walmart.  Save money.  Die faster.

UPDATE (10/22/13):  The shooter was sentenced only to probation for his crime:

Bianco was not required to make a plea under the ARD program for first-time, nonviolent offenders. He can have his arrest record expunged upon successful completion of the probation period if he stays out of trouble. 

In addition to serving six months of probation, he was ordered by Indiana Judge William J. Martin to pay $900 in costs, $180 in probation supervision fees and serve 20 hours of community service.

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Art: "War Made In America"

"War Made In America" -- an original surrealist painting by Levinson

Walmart.  Save money.  Die faster.

Armed robbery of a Wisconsin Walmart

Occurred March 22, 2013.

Two armed men entered a 24-hour Walmart Neighborhood Market in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and robbed the store of cash before fleeing.  They have yet to be caught.

From an article:

Wauwatosa police are looking for two people who robbed the Walmart Neighborhood Market near 124th Street and Capitol Drive early Friday and got away with an undisclosed amount of cash. 

Two armed individuals, who were wearing all black, entered the store at 3850 N. 124th St. at 2:50 a.m., police said. The robbers, who police believe are male, took the money and left in a vehicle.

(a related news video)

Walmart.  Save money.  Die faster.

UPDATE (6/13/13):  Three men were involved.  One of them was an employee of the Walmart.  They used a realistic-looking BB gun. 

From an article with details on how the crime unfolded and how the suspects were caught:

Three Milwaukee men are in custody in the armed robbery early Friday morning of the Walmart Market in Wauwatosa, according to police reports. 

Two of the men are accused of driving to the door of the store and carrying out the holdup while the other waited with a backup vehicle. After the robbery, they swapped cars and transferred their guns and other evidence from one to the other, to "throw off police," one of them confessed. 

The robbery was something of an inside job, according to the suspects' statements.
Two of the suspects, one 20 and one 26 years old, were discussing robbing a bank or business Thursday night. The third man, 23, told them that he could plan and take part in a robbery of the Walmart at 3850 N. 124thSt., because he knew the place well. He had been fired from his job there a week before. 

He drew a map of the interior and told them about the store's policies on storing money. He and one of the others donned all black clothing and took two guns, one a loaded pistol and the other a short rifle.  ... 

Several said that they believed the rifle one carried was in fact a BB gun, and the 18-year-old felt certain of it, saying he was close enough he could see BB's in the magazine of what he told police was an AK-47 lookalike.

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Five men, armed with assault rifles, rob Texas Walmart

Scene of armed robbery at Atascocita Walmart

Occurred January 10, 2012.

Five men, armed with assault rifles, robbed a Walmart store in Atascocita, Texas.

From an article:

At approximately 11:00pm on January 10, multiple masked suspects entered the big-box retailer. The suspects wielded high-powered rifles as they moved through the store directly to the office where cash was stored. One suspect wheeled a large metal box containing an undisclosed amount of cash in a shopping cart to a waiting getaway car outside. 

All suspects fled the scene in what appeared to be a white four-door passenger vehicle, possibly a Ford Taurus. Surveillance video of the crime was released last week. 

Investigators are still looking for two other suspects, Stanley White, 18, and Kevin Harris, 21. 

All five are charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.

According to another article, police believe it was an inside job:

Investigators said the heist appears to be an inside job. All the money was picked up at the registers at 10:55 p.m. and taken to the back, just minutes before the robbers came in. This time differs each night. 

The armed men walked into the store and went directly where the money was being counted. They quietly put the money in a grocery cart and pushed it out to their car.

Walmart.  Save money.  Die faster.

Double-amputee shoots Alaska Walmart manager when asked to leash service dog

Scene of shooting in Anchorage Walmart

Occurred March 16, 2013.

(updated, see below)

45-year-old Daniel Pirtle, a double-amputee in a motorized cart, was shopping in a Walmart in Anchorage, Alaska.  He had a service dog, but the dog was not on a leash.  When 33-year-old manager Jason Mahi asked Pirtle to leash his dog or leave, Pirtle became angry and shot Mahi once in the abdomen.

According to the Anchorage Scanner, the shooting occurred in the gun section of the store.

Pirtle was arrested just outside the store by an off-duty police officer and taken into custody.  Mahi survived so far and underwent surgery.

The store never closed, and wasn't evacuated.

From an article:

According to police, the man entered the store in a motorized cart at about 3 p.m. and went the sporting goods section. Mahi asked him to the put the dog on a leash or leave.  

The man then pulled out a gun and shot the manager in the abdomen, police said. 

Officers removed the man's prosthetic legs and put him in the back of a patrol car, the Anchorage Daily News reported. They held his dog in the back of another police cruiser. An officer said she was driving the dog home.

(a related article)

Walmart.  Save money.  Die faster.

UPDATE (3/20/13):  The victim, Mahi, remains unconscious in the hospital.  Pirtle meanwhile has been charged and is choosing to represent himself. He had two pistols on him at that time of the shooting.  From an article:

He was charged with first-degree assault and weapons misconduct, and on Tuesday declined a public defender, telling the judge that he preferred to represent himself. "I know how to do that," he said at the pre-indictment hearing. .... 

Pirtle had two pistols with him at the store, and later admitted to detectives that he had shot Mahi, according to an information report filed by the local district attorney. 

Mahi's brother, Brandon Mahi, said the victim remained unconscious on Tuesday. "We're just praying every day," Brandon Mahi said after Pirtle's brief court appearance. 

He said the family is upset that Walmart continued to do business after the shooting. "They just kept running like nothing even happened," he said. .... 

If Mahi dies, murder charges will be added, said Anita Shell, a spokeswoman for the Anchorage Police Department.

UPDATE (3/22/13): A recent article revealed additional details about the shooter.  According to the article:

Pirtle liked to travel with the 5-month-old dog Wookie -- and the guns -- wherever he went, said Susi Griffith, a roommate and longtime friend. He showed indications of instability, she said, but had seemed to be adjusting to a pair of surgeries to remove his legs because of diabetes over the past two to three years. .... 

Over the past two weeks, Pirtle had become irritable, Griffith said. "He has mental instabilities. He had medication that I believe he had quit taking."

UPDATE (3/28/13):  Here is a video from a news outlet which has a digital reenactment of the shooting.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/03/18/2830596/with-walmart-shooting-victim-in.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/03/18/2830596/with-walmart-shooting-victim-in.html#storylink=cpy

UPDATE (3/31/13):  Here is information on the off-duty police officer, Sgt. Mike Couturier, who detained Pirtle until he could be arrested.

UPDATE (11/16/13):  The shooter, Daniel Pirtle, plead guilty.  The victim, Brandon Mahi, has apparently recovered and returned to work.  From an article:

Daniel Pirtle, 46, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of first-degree assault for the shooting that put Jason Mahi, 33, in a hospital for weeks. Pirtle was originally charged with attempted murder and misconduct involving a weapon. 

An off-duty police sergeant who was shopping helped corral Pirtle, who was motoring out the store's front door as other officers arrived. Walmart employees made no announcement about the shooting, and shoppers in other parts of the store were unaware of what had happened, witnesses said.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/11/15/3178624/man-who-shot-walmart-employee.html#storylink=cpy

UPDATE (3/28/14):  The shooter, Pirtle, was sentenced.  From an article:

Before handing down a sentence of 11 years with two suspended and two years of probation, Judge Michael Spaan told Pirtle he was lucky someone else carrying a gun did not shoot him.

"You had people reaching for shotguns. You had police officers asking for guns," Spaan said. "This was horrible, but it could have been a lot worse. It was a very crowded store, a very public place."

"It was Dodge City," the judge said. "For a rage like this to break out for somebody asking you to put your dog on a leash in a store is unacceptable."

The victim, Jason Mahi, who was shot in the stomach, remains handicapped from the shooting:

"It's been a rough road," said Mahi, who spent three months in a hospital and racked up more than $1 million in medical bills. ....

Mahi now walks with a cane and suffered damage to his hip, intestines, kidney and bladder, he said. But he said the trouble and worry caused to his family has been the worst part.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2014/03/28/3399078/amputee-gets-9-year-sentence-in.html?sp=/99/188/#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2014/03/28/3399078/amputee-gets-9-year-sentence-in.html?sp=/99/188/#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2014/03/28/3399078/amputee-gets-9-year-sentence-in.html?sp=/99/188/#storylink=cpy

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Officer-involved shooting at Missouri Walmart

Occurred March 12, 2013.

Undercover police officers witnessed a disturbance in the parking lot of a Walmart in Joplin, Missouri.  When they confronted the suspects, the suspects tried to run them over, and the officers shot and wounded the vehicle occupants.

From an article:

Two suspects are in custody at the Joplin City Jail following a late night officer involved shooting which occured at the 15th Street Walmart. Two Joplin Police officers were conducting an undercover anti-theft detail Tuesday night just before 11:00, when they observed a disturbance in the parking lot. 

One of the suspects fled on foot. As the officers pursued the suspect, a male and female involved in the disturbance were in a pickup truck and attempted to run over one of the officers. The officer fired shots at the vehicle, striking the two occupants. The truck fled the scene. 

Joplin Police Lt. Brian Lewis says, "The truck was stopped by a Duquesne officer at 9th and Range Line. At that point they were taken into custody. Both suspects received injuries from the gun shot wounds. They were treated; they were not life threatening."

Walmart.  Save money.  Die faster.


UPDATE (3/14/13):  The two suspects have been identified.  From an article:

John Gage, 24, of Joplin, has been charged with the assault of a law enforcement officer. Tyeler Whetstone, 22, was also arrested and charged with possession with the intent to sell illegal drugs. .... 

Both received injuries from the gun shots. Gage was shot in the shoulder and a shot struck Whetstone in the finger. 

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Walmart is a "top-tier" donor for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus gun lobby

According to a New York Times article today, Walmart is a "top tier" donor to a major gun rights lobby group in Washington, D.C., called the Congressonal Sportsmen's Caucus, right up there with the NRA, Remington, and Winchester.

Contributions ballooned from $434,000 in 2001 to more than $2 million in 2011, with its top-tier donors including firearms makers and retailers like Remington, Winchester and Walmart.

The organization "counts more than 250 members in the House and Senate."

According to the article:  

The foundation opposes restrictions on high-capacity ammunition magazines, a ban on military-style AR-15 rifles and the imprinting of bullets with traceable serial numbers to help solve crimes.  ...

The caucus is regularly used as a launching pad in Congress for pro-gun legislation. The sponsor and all 27 original co-sponsors of a 2005 bill that shielded the firearms industry from liability suits were caucus members. More than 100 members co-sponsored the Second Amendment Enforcement Act, which was aimed at rolling back gun control measures in Washington, D.C., but died in committee in 2011. 

Also in 2011, caucus members wrote amendments that would have prevented gun dealers from having to report customers who make multiple purchases of certain weapons in states bordering Mexico, and would have rolled back restrictions on imports of shotguns with tactical features like extended magazine tubes. The N.R.A. issued a statement praising the amendments’ authors, Representatives Denny Rehberg of Montana and John Carter of Texas, both Republicans. 

 Luckily, not all legislators are willing to accept that viewpoint:

Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., a New Jersey Democrat who as a co-chairman of the law enforcement caucus has butted heads with the sportsmen’s caucus on gun issues, said pro-gun groups had stoked fear in Congress by portraying any limits on firearms as a threat to legitimate pastimes like hunting. 

“They see this as if they give in on any one item, it will put them on a slippery slope to coming into your home and taking your guns away,” Mr. Pascrell said. “They’re creating hysteria.”

Given that Walmart has more than one shooting on their properties every week, not counting all the armed robberies and threats where shots weren't fired, you would think Walmart would distance themselves from organizations like this which oppose even the most modest of gun regulation.

Walmart.  Save money.  Die faster.