SHELBY, NORTH CAROLINA – A man who set off a store security alarm as he was leaving was chased down and shot dead by a store employee Monday afternoon. The incident occurred around 1 p.m. at the Cleveland Mall, according to police.
According to witnesses, a man was leaving Dunham’s Sports, located in the mall, when the store security alarm sounded. An employee of the store gave chase across the mall’s parking lot, catching up with the man at the opposite end of the parking lot.
Responding officers of the Shelby Police Department found a shooting victim near the Hampton Inn and Suites, which is located adjacent to the mall parking lot. He was pronounced dead on the scene by the Cleveland County Emergency Medical Service.
Jacob Wesley Isenhour, 22, of Grover, has been charged with first-degree murder, carrying a concealed weapon, and discharging a firearm inside the city limits. He is being held in the Cleveland County Detention Center without bond.
The deceased was identified as Bryan Allen Francis of West Virginia. The investigation is on-going, and police have not said what, if any, merchandise Francis may have been in possession of that would have set off the store’s security alarm. It is also not known if he had a weapon of any kind or physically threatened the employee during the confrontation that occurred in the parking area.
Theft is not a crime punishable by death in North Carolina or any other state. Shooting a fleeing larceny suspect, especially after chasing them several hundred yards outside of a store, is not a justified self-defense shooting.
The charge of first-degree murder indicates that police investigators believe that it was not only intentional, but also premeditated. This young man is now facing life in prison or the death penalty…and for what?
