Slightly related curious event at
the Mall of America this past weekend:
Prosecutors on Monday charged a 28-year-old Woodbury man accused of committing an armed robbery inside Mall of America with an AR-15-style rifle on Friday.
… According to the criminal complaint, police in Bloomington went to the mall Friday after a man, later identified as Alexander, allegedly entered the Lids store on the third floor while holding a rifle at his side… Alexander is not alleged to have pointed the weapon at either employee, but he did rest it on the counter at one point during the incident. The employees stated that Alexander walked through the store, pointing out various jerseys he wanted employees to take down for him. He asked the employees to remove the security tags and put the jerseys in a bag for him. He eventually left the store with the bag and without paying for the products.
Mall of America security also informed law enforcement of a robbery alleged to involve Alexander at a kiosk. According to an employee of the kiosk, Alexander allegedly grabbed an item while holding a knife. Alexander then walked away while the employee was telling him he had to pay for what he took.
He’d also hit a pawn shop earlier in the day; similar MO.
Anyway, the police took him down at the mall, disarmed him and arrested him. No shots were fired (although his rifle was loaded, with a bullet in the chamber).
Two things stuck out to me; first, if this had happened in certain other states, would this have been armed robbery? (It was illegal here; specifically, MoA bans all guns on the premises). One could see a defense attorney saying
My client was just exercising his 2nd amendment rights; he didn’t threaten anyone (though the store employees obviously
felt threatened).
He just forgot to pay. Charge him with shoplifting if you must, but give him back his gun and apologize for the manner in which you seized it.
The other thing: He is 28 years old, and has
no previous record. And one day he wakes up, grabs his AR-15, and hits three stores (two in the MoA) the same way? Is he crazy? Is he making a statement of some sort? Or intentionally looking to be incarcerated? He faces charges which could call for 60 years.
:dunno:
