An Ohio man detained for shoplifting at a Walmart last week pulled a gun and pointed it at a police officer’s head, but the gun jammed and didn’t fire, and a Walmart employee jumped in to knock the gun away.
The incident was captured on the officer’s body camera.
In the video, 21-year-old Shane Newman and 23-year-old Katerina Jeffrey were sitting in the store’s loss prevention office when Newman turned and way and pulled out the concealed weapon, aiming it at the officer and pulling the trigger. As the officer scrambles away, a Walmart asset protection associate leaps onto Newman, knocking the gun away and wrestling with him until the officer returns with his gun drawn and subdues him.
The officer says in the video he didn’t fire because he feared he’d hit the Walmart employee on top of Newman.
“The safety and security of our customers and associates is always a top priority,” said Walmart Asset Protection Operations Coach Jessie Carpenter, WOIO reported. “We’re proud of the brave action our asset protection associate took to maintain the safety of everyone in our store. We’ll continue to work with police as they investigate.”
Interestingly, the officer patted Newman down minutes before he pulled the gun, somehow missing the weapon, as seen on the video.
Newman has been charged with attempted murder, felonious assault on a police officer, robbery, drug possession, and felon having a weapon. Jeffrey was charged with complicity to commit robbery.
Newman and Jeffrey appeared in Canton Municipal Court on Friday, when a judge gave Newman a $1 million bond and Jeffrey a bond of $500,000. They are due in court again on Tuesday.
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[Featured image: Canton Police Department via WOIO]
