An armed citizen in Spartanburg, S.C., reportedly shot a man threatening him with a piece of lumber outside a home-improvement store about 3 p.m. Aug. 18. News reports say the two men, who knew each other, began arguing in the store, but the armed citizen disengaged and tried to avoid the other man. The suspect went out to the parking lot, retrieved a 4-foot piece of lumber from his vehicle and awaited the other man. He then followed the armed citizen to his vehicle and threatened him with the lumber. The assailant ignored the man’s order to back away and continued to advance until the armed citizen was forced to shoot. The suspect died shortly afterward. Police said the shooter acted in self-defense and will not be charged. (FOX Carolina News, Greenville, S.C., 8/19/2019)
The Armed Citizen ExtraAn attempt to rob a restaurant in north Nashville one night was thwarted by an armed employee. When a robber wearing all black entered the establishment armed with a firearm, demanding money, employees worked together to neutralize the threat. While one employee dealt with the intruder, a co-worker saw an opportunity to retrieve a pistol carried by another employee, who had his hands up. The 58-year-old then opened fire on the robber, who fled the scene and later died of his injuries on the doorstep of his apartment. (Nashville Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn. , 8/2/19)
From the Armed Citizen® Archives
December 1967
Ed Osborne heard a shot in his Ukiah, Calif., tavern and rushed in to find a holdup man with a sawed-off shotgun standing over his bartender. Osborne, believin the bartender dead, shot the bandit fatally. Later it developed that the bandit had merely clubbed the bartender with his sawed-off gun, causing it ot fire accidentally. A coroner's jury ruled the bandit-shooting justifiable homicide.—Sacramento Bee
