A Kansas City Domino’s employee had a tough call to make about 8:00 PM on a recent Wednesday evening. Store video shows a man entering the store and causing a disturbance of some kind. Police say the man displayed a gun at some point and the employee fired multiple shots at him. He then left the store and collapsed in the parking lot. He later died at a hospital. He was 32-years old.
The Domino’s employee was interviewed by police and released pending further investigation.
I say the employee had a tough call here (and I’m speculating of course) based on the evidence that robbery doesn’t seem to have been the intent here but rather some sort of argument. It’s not that uncommon for suspects to display a gun (even a fake one) with the intent to intimidate their victims to comply with their demands rather than intending to shoot them.
Victims of course have no way of knowing the intent of the aggressor and precious little time to decide on a course of action once a gun is displayed. Fortunately, the law is on the side of the victims once a deadly force weapon is displayed. The simple display of the gun constitutes an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm.
Whether the gun was real or fake, loaded or not, and regardless of the actual intent of the aggressor, what matters is was the victim in reasonable fear for his life. Certainly seems like that is the case here.