Officer shoots attacking pit bull in Texas Walmart parking lot

Occurred August 11, 2014.

Screenshot of video of officer shooting attacking dog (source)

A police officer confronted beggars in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Seguin, Texas.  One of the beggars unleashed a pit bull, and the pit bull attacked the officer.  The officer fired one shot in defense through the dog's neck, injuring it.  The dog will survive.

From an article where the is also a video of the shooting:

Seguin police said when three loiterers begging for money would not leave a Walmart in Seguin, customers complained and that's when police say they approached 39 year old Mykkill Payne. They say Payne had a pitbull tied to a backpack.

"He untied the dog and dropped the leash and the dog I guess protecting his owner turned on the officer," added Payne.

The officer says he tried to back up but felt so threatened that he fired a single shot. The dog was shot in head and amazingly survived. By Tuesday morning, the dog was already walking and active.

That's because police say the pit-mixed was rushed to a vet in New Braunfels who saved his life.

"The bullet went in there and came out underneath here," described Springer. "The dog survived."

Meantime Payne was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing.

As for the fate of the dog?

"I think the owner is going to retrieve the dog."

Walmart.  Save money.  Die faster.

Police shoot and kill crows in an Idaho Walmart parking lot

Occurred February 3, 2014.


In a move which would seem overkill, and which is causing alarm to citizens and animal rights advocates, police in Caldwell, Idaho have been shooting and killing crows, including in the parking lot of the local Walmart store.

From an article:

Twelve dead crows have been found scattered around a Walmart parking lot in Caldwell, and an animal rights group says it isn't right, especially since Caldwell Police are the ones firing the shots. 

"My concern is killing them when other means could be used," said Toni Hicks, Director of Animals in Distress. 

Hicks is a wildlife rehabilitator, licensed by the state of Idaho since 1987, and argues that there's got to be a better, safer way to get rid of the annoying crows. 

"I really don't feel they need to shoot them," said Hicks. "There's other ways of dealing with nuisance animals."  ... 

Allgood says the public is not in danger. He says trained officers shoot the crows late at night, using real light loads and shooting upwards. Caldwell Police plan to continue this method as long as the crows are a nuisance. 

Idaho Fish and Game officer Charlie Justice says Caldwell Police has the backing of the federal government, and says federal regulations allow police to shoot crows as long as they are proven to be a nuisance and non-lethal means are used first. 

Idaho Fish and Game gave Caldwell Police special permission to shoot crows at night and outside crow hunting season, which runs October 1 to January 31.

Walmart.  Save money.  Die faster.

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.

.

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

.