Myers, who says he’s a licensed security guard, was sitting in his car Wednesday to conduct “overwatch” while his son trains because “he has seen numerous crimes occur” in the parking lot, according to the probable cause statement.

The surveillance footage shows Myers approach the teens with a gun in his hand, point it directly at them and then move quickly toward them, police said. One of the boys pulls a BB gun out of his pocket, lays it on the ground and extends his arms out as if to show he has nothing in his hands, police said in the document.

“Immediately after … it is clear that he has been shot because he abruptly jerks his body away from Myers and falls to the ground,” the document says.

  • voracitude@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Behold, Libertarians and 2nd Amendment nutters: Your “good guy with a gun”. Aren’t you proud of yourselves?

    • Limonene@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      What do you expect them to say? That they’re proud of this guy? Even though he’s clearly a madman?

      I know IRL gun nuts, and none of them would identify with this person. Also, none of them subscribe to the fallacy/straw-man of a “good guy with a gun”. The ones who carry concealed would remind you that they are carrying for themselves, not for you. If you find an active shooter in a mall, you can count on them… to run away.

      Skillful gun nuts know that shooting defensively is never worth the legal hassle unless it saves your life (or a family member’s life).

      The shooter in this article is nothing like any of the gun nuts I’ve ever met. This shooter is another Kyle Rittenhouse, someone anxious for a chance to kill a person and get away with it under the excuse of defense.

      • Carmakazi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I could be considered a gun nut myself but I will not pretend that this behavior is some abnormal outlier. There are plenty, plenty of American gun owners who think like this man does, they just haven’t had the opportunity for their malformed amygdala to get someone killed.

        You mention Rittenhouse but he’s a gun culture hero. Zimmerman and the like, all heroes. People who get to use their gun to lay down the law like the Earp posse are generally seen as heroes when they don’t completely fuck up like this guy, they’re not shunned as short-sighted and reckless.

      • voracitude@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So, you know responsible gun owners - note I didn’t mention them. I’m happy they exist. But you don’t know every gun owner, or even a significant fraction of them, and if you believe nobody with a gun subscribes to the “good guy with a gun” fallacy then you’re delusional.

      • sub_ubi@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Yes, that’s what I expect. And then for the shooter to appear on podcasts and political rallies

      • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This shooter is another Kyle Rittenhouse, someone anxious for a chance to kill a person and get away with it under the excuse of defense.

        Wow, tell me you don’t know anything about the Kyle Rittenhouse story without saying it directly, lmao.

        I love how the Rittenhouse story has become such an effective litmus test to easily distinguish between honest left-wingers/progressives, and ones who are either gullible enough to swallow the narrative that is clearly disproven by all of the evidence (up to and including publicly-available direct video evidence) and testimony, or malicious and dishonest enough to cling to said narrative out of solidarity for their political ‘team’, knowing that it is categorically false.

        • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          All Kyle had to do to not have any of that happen is not show up. The odds of that dramatically increased when he decided to show up with a gun where he knew a bunch of people, some of whom would would be armed, would be out in force and opposing his views.

          Much like a lone women wandering late at night through a crime-ridden part of town getting raped, he may not have done anything wrong, but his bad judgement led to the expected consequences. And before we talk about defending his workplace, there’s a reason many places say to not try to stop robberies - the insurance claim is far cheaper than the cost of most outcomes of trying to stop the thefts, even the relatively positive outcomes.

          • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            All Kyle had to do to not have any of that happen is not show up.

            Victim blaming.

            when he decided to show up with a gun where he knew a bunch of people, some of whom would would be armed, would be out in force and opposing his views.

            Open carry state, nobody gave a fuck that he was there while armed. He showed up while obviously visibly armed, and was there walking around while obviously visibly armed, for hours, with zero negative reaction from anyone. He gave some degree of medical assistance to at least 8 people there, according to the trial, and handed out water bottles on request, while walking around yelling “medic” and “friendly”.

            Nobody attacked him for “his views”–he wasn’t even counter-protesting (and literally stated he supported BLM in an interview, to boot)! Literally every action he took there, before he was forced to defend his left not once, but three times, was objectively altruistic/benevolent. Hell, we have evidence he was cleaning graffiti off a high school earlier that same day.

            The ONLY reason things started to go south is because he put out a particular dumpster fire that happened to be set by a literal homicidal maniac (someone literally released that day from a hospital, where he was held for a recent suicide attempt), whose horrific plan was to wheel said flaming dumpster into a nearby gas station (want to take a few guesses why he wanted to bring a big fireball into a gas station?), and said maniac decided to scream death threats at him (as well as calling him and a few other people (all of whom were white, far as we know) the n-word) for putting out his fire, and later, LITERALLY tried to make good on those death threats.

            If someone else had put out that dumpster fire, they would have been attacked instead. This argument is absolutely idiotic. What, are you going to try and tell me that putting out a fire is some sort of aggressive or provocative act?

            Kyle never aggressed on anyone, and his FIRST response to EVERY act of aggression against him, was literally TO FLEE. If any of the people he ended up shooting literally LET HIM RUN AWAY, they’d all be alive/not injured. But they INSISTED on attempting their murder, and chased him down, until they had him cornered, and then tried to kill him. He prevented them from succeeding and protected his life. End of story.

            Much like a lone women wandering late at night through a crime-ridden part of town getting raped

            You’d imply it was her fault by saying that her presence is the reason it happened, lol.

            his bad judgement led to the expected consequences.

            Bad judgment to put out fires, okay, lol. That’s the lesson everyone should learn from this, right? Don’t put out a fire with an unknown cause, just in case it happened to be

            • BigMacHole@lemm.eeBanned from community
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              1 year ago

              I AGREE with you! Kyle Rittenhouse had NO CHOICE but to Cross State Lines with a Weapon! Literally NO other choice!

      • voracitude@lemmy.world
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        Hahaha no, he’s not even a “diet” cop (but I love that term), though he clearly fuckin thinks he is. I actually took a security guard training course when I was a teenager, and this motherfucker did everything they tell you not to do. If he saw a suspected threat, he should have called the cops and gotten to safety, according to the training. Even with a gun, you’re not supposed to use it. We got that training because guards who can wear firearms get paid more, and the agency training is would make more on us if we had our certs.

        It was just middle-manager levels of power tripping, with a gun.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      No, no, if we had removed all regulations, like the libertarians want, this gentleman would have voluntarily formed a non-aggression pact with the teens and not shot any. The real problem is the regulations and laws preventing him from forming a pact. If we remove all laws and taxes it will work.

  • BrotherL0v3@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Carries a gun

    Violently terrified of others carrying guns

    This guy was never not going to murder someone.

  • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Wow, the article even has a section detailing why the boys were there with BB guns:

    The two surviving teens told police that they were at the store to return or exchange Hazrat Ali Rohani’s BB gun because he was having some issues with it, according to the police report. One of them also said that he had his own BB gun with him and brought it along so employees could check out a “magazine issue” he was having.

    Myers straight up murdered the kid. Fortunately the article also points out he was arrested and the video evidence shows clear 2nd degree manslaughter, so he’s going to jail, losing his guns, and most likely won’t watch his kid grow up. His kid has a chance to grow up without a bad influence in his life now, so that’s good.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      “The 17-year-old shot and killed was identified as Hazrat Ali Rohani by Kent-Meridian High School Principal David Radford, according to the Kent Reporter.”

      And from another article:

      "According to court documents, Myers said he “had a duty to act to stop the individuals from hurting someone innocent and to protect his son who was at the location next door to Big 5 Sporting Goods.” "

      …and …

      "Myers reiterated to detectives that the teens would not follow his commands. It should be noted that Myers is not a uniformed law enforcement officer, and they did not need to follow his commands. " source

      …and…

      “Myers said he thought he saw a teen reach for something in his waistband, so he fired multiple times. According to court documents, he stood over the teen on the ground and continued to fire.”

      So Main-Character-Syndrome middle aged guy was pointing his gun and the teenager wouldn’t obey his commands, so decided to live out his vigilante fantasy and murder a teen. Lock this guy up for good.

  • Arbiter@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Jesus Christ, this dude freaked out seeing kids taking a BB Gun into a sporting goods store.

    Christ knows what this guy thinks seeing people go to a gun range.

    • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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      Every sporting store in my area specifically states to not bring firearms/guns into the store. I have seen many models of pellet/bb gun that look like real firearms until you handle them.

      I’m not defending the actions of the security guard but rules like these could help prevent a similar situation in the future.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        Every sporting store in my area specifically states to not bring firearms/guns into the store.

        So how do you return one of the guns you can buy in such stores if there’s an issue with it?

        • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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          You inform an employee and they escort your gun with you in the store. It is also important to note I am in Canada and we have different gun laws.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            That’s really not at all how it works in Washington. Or anywhere else in the U.S.

            These kids were doing absolutely nothing wrong or even out of the ordinary.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Your set of rules puts the onus on the victim to avoid getting shot. You’re putting restrictions on the wrong party.

                How many deaths would such rules prevent per year versus things like mandated safety lessons and training?

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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    See, it’s this bullshit. This well-intentioned man, actively employed in a fashion that would train him, fucked up, and killed someone’s child. When it comes to the use of deadly force, there is no take-backs, no do-overs, no second chances. How many people handle guns perfectly? Now take that person with perfect gun knowledge and drop them in a situation where they don’t know everything, are only given a small glimpse of what could be a weapon, and BAM, you have a tragic loss of life because in reality, 99% of the time it’s just somebody being stupid, and not doing anything that should result in their death.

    • bc93@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It would be fun if guns were outlawed for everyone, including cops and the military

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I always thought we crossed the line with the wave of “Campus Security” departments becoming licensed police so they could carry guns

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    1 year ago

    “Myers felt like he did not have time to call 911, and that he had a duty to act to stop the individuals from hurting someone innocent, and to protect his son, who was in the location next door,” according to the police report.

    No time to call 911 my ass.

    Fucking murderer didn’t want anyone else getting the credit for his kill.

    • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      No time to call 911 my ass.

      Let’s be real, here. If those guys were intending to commit a violent crime, and were literally in the parking lot of the establishment they were going to commit a crime at, do you really think a call to 911 would have resulted in anyone on the scene any earlier than long after the crime had been committed?

      It didn’t justify his action, obviously, but come on. This isn’t Night City 1.0 where cops magically materialize on scene the moment something suspicious happens, lol

  • BigMacHole@lemm.eeBanned from community
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    1 year ago

    The ONLY way this could have been prevented is if the teen had an ACTUAL Gun and shot the Security Guard first! And the ONLY way to prevent THAT situation would be if the Security Guard shot the teen first! There’s LITERALLY no other way we could play this scenario out!