LAKEWOOD – Shoppers ducked for cover Friday as a discount store manager and a security guard exchanged gunshots with a thief in a parking lot, authorities said.
A worker at a nearby espresso stand was wounded in the foot in the exchange of as many as 20 gunshots.
“I can’t believe my morning started like this,” said Tacoma Discount World manager Curtis Fidler.
Fidler said he and the store security officer chased a thief out the front door of the business at about 11 a.m. after the thief smashed a jewelry case and ran off with several gold chains, knocking over a shopper in the process.
Fidler said he and the security guard pulled their own guns when the thief began firing. Fidler estimated as many as 20 shots were fired in all.
Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said three cars in the store parking lot were hit by gunfire as shoppers took cover.
Troyer said a pickup truck apparently used by the thief and an accomplice was recovered about an hour later at a nearby McDonalds.
Troyer said the security guard was being questioned. The thief remained at large.
“We don’t condone what the security guard did,” Troyer said. “Opening fire in the parking lot was a risky thing to do.”
The store manager said he regularly carries a gun.
“I’m responsible for the safety of the people (employees), so I try to think what might happen and be prepared,” Fidler said.
Moxee
Woman dies in fire: An 89-year-old woman died after being trapped by flames in her house in this town southeast of Yakima, fire officials said. Witnesses saw Louise Galloway near the front window of her burning house and called 911 Thursday. Firefighters arrived soon afterward and broke out a front window, but Galloway died soon after being taken to a hospital in Yakima. Cause of the fire was under investigation.
Seattle
Mardi Gras sentence: A man photographed wearing brass knuckles during the downtown Mardi Gras riots was sentenced Friday to three years in prison. Aaron Slaughter, 19, pleaded guilty in September to second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of fourth-degree assault and one count of felony rioting. King County prosecutors said Slaughter roamed through Pioneer Square and attacked people at random as Mardi Gras celebrations last February disintegrated into a riot. More than 70 people were hurt in the violence. One young man was killed. Slaughter also pleaded guilty in Grant County Superior Court on Sept. 18 to first-degree rendering criminal assistance, in connection with fights that broke out after a July concert at the Gorge Amphitheater. He was sentenced to nine months in prison in that case.
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