U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)-– On May 27, 2022, at Clay’s Wellston Food Market in Missouri, next to the Illinois border on the east side of St. Louis, a man “openly carrying” an AR15 type rifle, under a jacket, with a “gun sleeve” on the rifle, was accosted by an armed man who approached him from behind and demanded the rifle and the jacket. From ksdk.com:
Major Ron Martin with the North County Police Cooperative spoke to 5 On Your Side after the shooting. He said that moments before the shooting, a customer with a rifle had entered the grocery store.
Martin said the patron was “open carrying” the rifle in a gun sleeve underneath an article of clothing and did not threaten anyone while inside the store.
The robbery did not go well for the robber, who turned out to be a career criminal. It seems the owner of the rifle objected to the theft. Strenuously. With gunfire. From fox2now.com:
According to court documents obtained by FOX2, surveillance footage captured Booker putting a gun to the head of the rifle-toting individual before he took the AR-15 and a jacket. The footage also showed him wielding a pistol he possessed, in addition to the stolen AR-15 rifle while several others were present.
Police say the victim of the stolen rifle fired shots at Booker, who was struck multiple times. That victim left the scene, but police believe another man returned moments later and also shot the man who took the rifle.
Officers found Booker laying in front of the store with several gunshot wounds. He was treated for his injuries at a hospital. Authorities served a warrant for Booker’s arrest on Tuesday. Booker is scheduled for an arraignment hearing in the case for June 6.
Fox2now.com reported Brooker is identified as a felon by Missouri court records and has a long criminal rap sheet.
Unfortunately, this correspondent has not been able to locate a video of the event. By the description, there are several ways an AR15 type rifle could be both “underneath an article of clothing” and “in a gun sleeve”, and described as “open carry”. Neither of the options are common ways to “open carry”. To this correspondent, they appear uninspired attempts at clumsy concealment. As Missouri has Constitutional Carry, it does not matter very much in the eyes of the law.
A gun sleeve is a less used term for a gun case or gun sock. There are many ways an AR15 rifle might be carried “in a gun sleeve” and “under an article of clothing”.
One article reported the victim retrieved the rifle and left with it; another said the second man who shot Brooker took the rifle with him. Neither of the men who shot the robber appears to have been wounded, but two bystanders where hit with stray bullets. From insider.com:
The victim fled with his rifle while the accused robber, who had been shot several times, remained on the scene. A third man then also shot him, police said.
Clay’s Wellston Market has been reported as a hotspot for crime, serious trouble and drug dealing. A police officer was killed there on June 23 of 2019. From ksdk.com:
In fact, Martin said officers have received more than 1,200 calls for service to the location in the last year and a half.
“Disturbances, property damage, bad checks, shots heard, stolen vehicle, 911 hang up,” Martin said as he read through a list of police logs from November 2017 to July 2019.
The offenses during that time, he said, range from quality of life crimes like panhandling and intoxicated subjects to violent felonies like shootings and fighting.
“If you pull up the Missouri criminal code, I can tell you every crime listed in there has probably happened at this location,” Martin said.
On June 23, the problem hit close to home.
That’s the day Martin’s coworker and brother in blue, Officer Michael Langsdorf, was shot and killed in the line of duty.
Bad things happen in criminal hotspots. Even there, criminals refrain from murder when a threat of death will do, and there are numerous witnesses. It did not work out well for Mr. Brooker. Confronting an armed man, and threatening them with death, is a very high-risk scenario. If criminals or other predators misjudge such risks, they do not last long.
If we are able to see the video, we can make a better determination of how the rifle was carried and what happened.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
The story of the robbery/shooting confused the hell out of me. Apparently, the robber did take the AR-15 from its owner, who then shot the robber with… what?
It mentions someone who had both a pistol and “the stolen AR-15”. If it was the owner of the AR-15, he didn’t steal it. Only the robber possessed the stolen AR-15: that’s how it became a stolen weapon.
Then, however the robber got shot several times, he survived? Poor shooting? Inadequate caliber?
Like I said, this story left me confused.
He had a back up firearm in his vehicle. So he went and got it.
Yes, other reports of this story indicate that the “victim” returned to his car, got another AR, then shot at the robber.
If that is what happened, it eliminates “self defense” and makes the shooting a crime even if he had hit only the robber. Which probably accounts for why this so-called “victim” grabbed his gun and left before the police arrived.
It also accounts for why the incident is “still under investigation.”
You don’t think in real world terms do you?
Open carry means you have to be condition yellow at all times. Open carry into a store, then you need to check your six the whole time and on your way home, to make sure you are not being followed to get home invaded. My guess is it was ghetto rat on ghetto rat, and the ar15 is probably a hi point carbine, that gangsters carry in one pant leg, and not real open carry. The story is about how dumb it is to open carry or to print. Open carry is not a deterrence, it only advertises that the… Read more »
“how dumb it is to open carry or to print”
I will have to remember that next time I strap on my weapon – openly.
It may be the only safe way to enter a store is to dress in vehicle chrome camouflage and work your way to the entrance ducking and hiding between vehicles with your 25ACP meticulously concealed in your sock.
HLB
Fine piece of satire!! Well done.
It is confusing because the initial reports are somewhat contradictory.
Early reporting is often contradictory and confusing. Everything would be much easier to understand, if we could see the surveillance video.
It might eventually become available.
I appreciate it, very much, when an author takes the time to answer the concerns of his readership. Thank you, Dean!
True journalism is largely dead. No surprise that the news report is gibberish.
Maybe the “victim” had a rifle and a concealed handgun. Dean did the best he could with the bad MSM reporting available.
Obviously the man carrying the rifle was not a a convicted criminal.
A few innocent people got shot because of a bad idea.
Just because I’m feeling charitable and wish to give gun owners the benefit of a doubt, I can see a guy grabbing some grub or beer and gas on the way home from a day at the range and, being in a high crime area, not wishing to leave his gun in the car while shopping.
It may be that he was at the range at the Clay’s Wellston Food Market.
HLB
One of many plausible scenaria. Each one of us assess the given and imediate situation and makes an inform3d decision based on multiple factors, soe not even articulable. Sometimes I have considered going somewhere, get near, and get a sense “this is not right”. My smeller is telling me something I cannot see hear or feel. I heed it almost every time. Once I had been “made” in a public venue that I was told, as the guard was confronting me, that this place prohibits fireaarms inside, you will have to remvoe the gun. I had carefully checked ALL the… Read more »
It would be easier to give this idiot “the benefit of a doubt” if he didn’t have another AR that he left in the car — which is the one he apparently retrieve and used to shoot the robber and probably the two bystanders. Someone else suggested this might have been two criminals, perhaps it was (of course it is now because going to his car to get another rifle and returning to shoot the robber makes it a crime and not self defense). To me it smells like one of those idiot self-appointed “Auditors” Hopefully there is decent surveillance… Read more »
You haven’t seen the video, the reporting is confused, he was apparently legally carrying a rifle, so how are you in position to call him an idiot?
“A few innocent people” chose not to arm themselves and protect their locality from criminals.
HLB
The bad idea was trying to steal the rifle.
Good job Dean. This place seems like a good place to AVOID even if the police reports are only half correct. I don’t blame the victim for running. After what happened to Rittenhouse who was obviously innocent and had the video footage to prove it was made to endure. I have been in Rittenhouse’s situation and I was not treated badly by the prosecutor but still, it was not close to pleasant. I would be reticent to go through it again but I would still want to do the right thing. Maybe the victim had some kind of record and… Read more »
Any idiot carrying something like that into a business deserves to be shot behind the ear by the other armed citizen.
Who in their right mind #1 willingly goes into a known high crime establishment and #2 does so open carrying? If the “victim” in this situation felt the need to be carrying an AR then clearly he should have known this store was a rather dangerous place. It seems to me that the “victim” was trying to flex his “street cred” and the shouldn’t have been running around loose habitual criminal saw it as a challenge to get one over on him. I may be wrong here but…………………
The World is a war zone and wars are fought with open carry weapons. Even rich people can not always avoid high risk areas as evil tends to leak out of the worn seals of society and spread itself on those delicate, smooth hands.
HLB
The U.S. isn’t a war zone.
Here’s a news flash since you don’t understand the concept that where poor people live, they also tend to shop for food, toiletries, gasoline, etc! You shop where you live! Before my grand folks took me when I was seven, my dear old mom who was a part-time hooker, ‘raised’ me in what we called the Projects; i.e, public housing, where everyone who lived there is on welfare and food stamps, and they bring in cash by less than above board means and professions! People with a middle class mindset who live in the suburbs, or in middle class sections… Read more »
My favorite version:
“The victim fled with his rifle while the accused robber, who had been shot several times, remained on the scene.
A third man then also shot him.”
Yep. Why not? Everyone in the store should’ve got one in him.