A City Gear security officer is out of a job after shooting an irate customer who threatened to kill store employees Saturday night.
The shooting erupted inside the Whitehaven store after the customer came inside the business and wanted a refund on a pair of shoes that had allegedly been purchased earlier.
The customer threatened to ‘kill’ the City Gear staffer after the employee told the angry customer they did not do refunds.The stores lost prevention staffer tried to calm down the victim, police said.
Witnesses said the customer, identified by police as a victim, told the loss prevention officer, “I will kill you. I don’t care about that gun.”
Witnesses say the victim “walked up on suspect” and that’s when the loss prevention officer pulled out a handgun and began to fire shots at the victim.
Police say the customer suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was rushed to Regional One in critical condition.According to Fox13 Memphis, City Gear condemned the actions taken by its employee. Full statement below:
Safety is always our top priority and we do not condone violence.
We encourage anyone with information about this incident to contact the Memphis Police Department.”Some customers question whether the employee deserved to be fired over what sounded like self defense.
KWAM listeners were quick to call out Hibbett/City Gear for terminating its officer.
“So they hire armed security and one of those guards ends up having to use said fire arm to stop a would-be attack from someone advancing and making serious death threats. Then they fire that guard for using the force they hired him to use and wash their hands of it,” wrote one social media user.
