WHY WE CARRY: Customer Shot And Killed During Restaurant Robbery

JEFFERSON COUNTY, LOUISIANA — An armed robber held a Jack In The Box employee at gunpoint and when the employee failed to comply with his request, he allegedly shot and killed him according to police and surveillance video.  WSFA 12 recalls the harrowing incident in which there were two employees on duty and one of them on the register when a 19-year-old with an illegally obtained handgun stood up the store nonchalantly.  According to the Chief of Police, the employee showed no resistance to the armed robber.

“A person who just walked into the restaurant, into the Jack’s as if he was going to make an order. Told the victim to get on the floor or he would kill him and eight seconds later he killed him. He just murdered the guy in cold blood as it could possibly be,” Pleasant Grove Police Chief Corky Knight said.

The suspect is now in custody and will be charged with capital murder and robbery.  He is also believed to be linked to a separate armed robbery at a pizza place not far from the Jack In The Box.  Jack In The Box stated they intend to assist with the funeral expenses associated with their employee’s death.

It’s unknown what the Jack In The Box corporate policy is on employees being allowed to carry concealed so it’s impossible to know whether the employee in question even had the ability to be legally armed during the confrontation or whether or not that would have saved his life.  What we do know is that armed citizens can and do play a pivotal role in ensuring crap like this doesn’t go down.  Police can only be so omnipresent.

Stories like this are an excellent example of why we carry — because perhaps it wasn’t just an employee but someone’s son, daughter, mother, or father that could and should have been saved by a good-hearted concealed carrier happening around the restaurant in the late night.

We don’t know when that opportunity will present itself — to be in the position to save our own life or that of another from the likes of cut-throat monsters that have absolute no regard from human life.  What we do know is if and when that moment does present itself, should we not be prepared to return that deadly force in kind?

Concealed carriers are heavily dissuaded from using the terms “shoot to kill” or anything of the nature.  That said, I sincerely hope the sweat off the brow of this cold-blooded murderer makes a crispy sizzle when it hits the electric chair.