Texas officer fatally shoots male, 18, who police say produced handgun amid assault of victim who was motionless on ground



A Corpus Christi, Texas, police officer fatally shot an 18-year-old male early Sunday morning who police said produced a handgun amid the assault of a male victim who was motionless on the ground.

Police said officers were dispatched just after 1:30 a.m. to an assault in progress at the Ranch Dance Hall in the 4000 block of Everhart Road.

'We understand that there has been another shooting of a black man by CCPD.'

Police said call notes indicated the male assault victim was on the ground and not moving.

Police said arriving officers saw an assault taking place on the side of a building on the corner of Everhart Road and Burney Drive — and that the suspect produced a handgun while over the victim on the ground.

One of the officers of the two-man unit fired his gun and hit the 18-year-old male suspect who was taken to a hospital where he died, police said.

The assault victim also was taken to a hospital for his injuries, police said.

Police said the the officer involved wasn't injured and will be placed on administrative leave.

Police added that those with information about the incident can call detectives at 361-886-2840 or make an anonymous call to CrimeStoppers at 361-888-TIPS (8477) or submit a tip online.

The Nueces County Medical Examiner has identified the 18-year-old who was killed as Dwayne Earl Johnson, the Corpus Christi Caller Times reported.

Leaders of the NAACP's H. Boyd Hall Chapter held a press conference Monday morning over the police-involved shooting, the Caller Times said, adding that the organization noted in a press release that “we understand that there has been another shooting of a black man by CCPD. We have been in touch with the chief and have requested a thorough and independent investigation to ensure the truth of what happened is ultimately discovered."

How are observers reacting?

Well over 200 comments have appeared underneath the Corpus Christi Police Department's Facebook post about the shooting, and they appear decidedly mixed; some support the officer's actions while others have questions. Here are a couple that reflect the breakdown:

  • "Was the gun pointed at the cop?" one commenter wondered. "Did he try to get the kid to put the gun down first, or did he just shoot? So many questions.... I think police like to shoot first and ask questions later."
  • "If someone points a gun at an officer it's called self defense; if someone points a gun at someone else it's called self defense in the third person," another commenter said. "Police serve and protect. Reading what they advise in this news segment the victim was on the ground defenseless, and the suspect pulled a gun out toward victim who could not defend himself, and officers protected the victim by using deadly force to match deadly force."

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Former Big Lots manager says he was fired after following shoplifter outside store in an attempt to help cops locate suspect



A former manager at a Big Lots store in the Rochester, New York, area said he was fired after following a shoplifter — who took a swing at an employee — outside the store and into the parking lot to help police locate the suspect.

Pat Guider told WHEC-TV during an interview at his Irondequoit home that he saw the shoplifter take a swing at his assistant manager during the May 10 incident: “What I saw is that he took a swing, like a punch at [the assistant manager],” Guider said while making an uppercut motion with a clenched fist.

'The good thing is we have a huge faith in God, a huge faith in God, and everything will work out. It’s just going to be difficult.'

Guider also told WHEC that’s the only reason he followed the shoplifter out of the store: “I let people who shoplift leave the store every day. Every day. We just put it in the system like they ask us to do. This was an assault. This wasn’t shoplifting. This was an assault.”

Guider told the station he followed the male at a distance through the parking lot of the store while relaying his location to 911 so police might catch the suspect.

The suspect got away — and Guider told WHEC he was fired over the incident.

“I thought I was doing the right thing,” he told the station.

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Guider told WHEC that on May 29 he was called to his district manager’s office and fired over the incident — despite 20 years with the company and a positive review in March.

The station in its interview with Guider asked him, “Do you think you did the right thing?”

Guider replied to WHEC, “I think I did the right and just thing. The right and just thing.”

The station said its reporter found no phone number for Big Lots' CEO or communication chief, so the reporter emailed the company on Tuesday — and then Wednesday and then on Friday — but Big Lots had not responded as of the story's publication.

WHEC said a poster in the Big Lots lunchroom warns employees to “never leave the store to pursue, detain, or identify a customer.”

The station's reporter asked labor lawyer Paul Keneally at Underberg & Kessler how Guider could have been fired for trying "to help police track down a shoplifter ... how does that happen?”

Keneally told WHEC "the company is probably considering the liability of any sort of interaction between the perpetrator and store employee.”

The attorney added to the station that likely explains why Big Lots has "a rule in place that the employees are not to do anything, and it’s unfortunate because it sounds like this person was trying to do the right thing."

Guider told WHEC, "I did not put myself in jeopardy. I did not put any shoppers in jeopardy."

Now without a job — and with two sons in college — Guider noted to the station that he and his wife are trying to figure out how to get health insurance. What's more, at age 62, Guider added to WHEC he's not sure how easy it will be to find another job.

“The good thing is we have a huge faith in God, a huge faith in God, and everything will work out," he noted to the station. "It’s just going to be difficult. It’s going to be difficult."

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