Customer Saves 7-11 Clerk From Axe-Swinging Masked Attacker
Russ Chastain 03.16.16
King County, Washington — A customer enjoying his morning coffee in a 7-11 store found himself witness to a man swinging an axe at another customer and then attacking a clerk with the same grisly chopping tool. Fortunately, this customer had a concealed handgun, which he reportedly used to neutralize the threat.
Although the attacker, who wore a mask and never said a word during the bizarre episode, did injure the store employee, the concealed carrier shot the bad guy before it got worse. A local news report said “the clerk suffered minor injuries to his stomach.”
It’s unclear what the goal of the attack may have been, considering that the crook’s first move was to swing his hatchet at a customer then attack the clerk–without ever uttering a word demanding money or anything else.
EMTs pronounced the axe man dead at the scene, and police had nothing but kind words to say about the customer who ended the attack:
King County Sheriff’s investigators say the customer who shot the man appears to have done nothing wrong, and they are happy he was there to intervene.
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‘[T]his could have been a lot worse,’ said King County Sheriff’s Sergeant Cindi West. ‘The clerk could be the one laying there dead on the floor right now.’
Two store employees, including the victim of the hatchet attack, said the 60-year-old Seattle resident who saved the day is a store regular who stops in every day for coffee and lottery lickets.
Thank goodness he didn’t gamble with his safety and was able to intervene before the convenience store could be transformed into a butcher shop.
Investigators describe the area as a quiet neighborhood and said this was the first violent incident at the store in recent memory.
It just goes to show that bad things can happen anywhere–and that it’s better to have a gun and not need it than to need one and not have it.
