Another One for the Good Guys

Legal & Second Amendment
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Off-duty firefighter stops man armed with 100 rounds of ammunition at south Springfield Walmart

Off-duty firefighter stops man with 100 rounds of ammunition at a Walmart

Posted: Thu 5:18 PM, Aug 08, 2019 |

Updated: Thu 6:24 PM, Aug 08, 2019

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. The Springfield Police Department says they responded to a call of an active shooter at the Walmart: Neighborhood Market at Republic Rd., near Golden Ave., Thursday evening.

The Springfield Police Department arrived on scene within three minutes of the call. Police stated that a young white male, appearing to be in his twenties, pulled up to the Walmart, where he donned body armor and military fatigues. Police say the man had tactical weapons.

Police then say the man walked into the Walmart: Neighborhood Market where he grabbed a cart and began pushing it around the store. Police say the man was recording himself walking through the store via a cell phone.

The store manager at the Neighborhood Market pulled a fire alarm, urging people to escape the store.

Police say the man then made his way out an emergency exit where a firefighter held the man at gunpoint. At that moment Springfield Police arrived on scene and detained the man.

The Springfield Police Department could not confirm the nature of statements said by the man to those inside of the Walmart, but they do confirm that the man had loaded weapons, and over one hundred rounds of ammunition.

Police also observed many shoppers hiding outside the Walmart and at nearby businesses.

Lieutenant Mike Lucas said it was clear the man’s intent was to cause chaos, saying in part, “His intent was not to cause peace or comfort…He’s lucky he’s alive still, to be honest.”

Police identified the man’s vehicle and are investigating the possibility of more firearms inside the vehicle.

ky3.com/a?a=528602951

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Yeah, that’s about 45 min from my home. :angry:

He was all geared up, but never unholstered, from the sound of it. Just walked around the Walmart scaring the living daylights out of people and videoing while they panicked and ran.

Not a well person, that’s for sure, but its interesting that he never even brandished.

Sounds like Springfield police were right on it. Could have been a much uglier situation. A+ to the firefighter who held him at gunpoint :+1:

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And… the more I think about this… He may be guilty of disturbing the peace, but quite possibly no firearms-specific laws.

In Missouri, open carry is legal, body armor is legal, carrying in Walmart is legal. Scaring the sh** out of people and causing panic, not so much.

I’m good with the arrest, he’s clearly not ok, because that’d be some mighty poor judgment.

Walmart is doing the calm thing though.

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I was wondering the same things. Other than using very poor judgment he really didn’t break any State laws. Just gave responsible carriers a black eye.

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Well the more I think about this the more questions I have. Does practicing O/C have the effect of scaring the hell out of people especially in the aftermath of the past few weeks? If it does put others in fear for their safety what legal issues arise? Should the fireman be praised or should he be charged for violating the other guys legal right to O/C?

Just to put all my cards on the table…I’ve opposed O/C in the past because I feel it hurts our overall image with the public.

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@Michael7 this is literally my home town so I can tell you about how OC affects people there. On a normal day OC with a pistol or revolver doesn’t get you a second glance. It’s not tremendously common, that is, if we’re shopping in Springfield or at an event like the fair, my husband may be the only person we see open carrying, perhaps a third or a quarter of the time well see someone else. If we’re at the gun show, a LOT of people will be open carrying.

When we’re out, we usually see someone concealed carrying, and not making an especially large effort to prevent having their shirt lift up.

In all of those cases, OC, semi-CC, it literally doesn’t get a second look. My hubby has never been challenged on it, asked to leave, had a cop speak to him, anything. Occasionally it sparks a “what do you carry” gun conversation.

What I’m telling you is it DOES NOT cause alarm. Its acceptable public behavior. Its entirely “meh”.

OC with a rifle will get you a second look. If you’re in full camo and its hunting season, that’s all it gets. If you’re in street clothes or 5.11 tactical it’ll get you two. People are likely to watch you a bit, but its likely no one is dropping a dime and its likely that the cops will not talk with you as long as it stays slung.

In this case, given it being so lined up with the events in El Paso, what the guy did was clearly intended to provoke that association. He meant to scare people. I haven’t heard any reports yet of what he was saying as he videoed, but I’m guessing he was commenting on people panicking. That would certainly shift the picture into the danger zone.

In Missouri we know crazy when we see it, and we know a$$****s when we see them. We mostly ignore both, but given recent events… this guy is lucky he didn’t get shot.

They’ll probably prosecute him on disorderly behavior, disturbing the peace, or something related, or if he was talking about shooting people, terroristic threats.

The firefighter won’t be in any legal trouble. He did the right thing, didn’t assault the guy, didn’t shoot him.

The question of OC giving CC a black eye… nope, in Missouri it is barely noticed. It took people a couple of years to adjust as the laws changed, but I’m telling you it doesn’t even get a second look. It is no big thing. And I believe OC was a necessity on the evolution of public thinking to constitutional carry and to the acceptance of firearms as it now exists in MO.

The question of are guys like this giving us a black eye? No. In Missouri we know crazy a$$****s when we see them.

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Zee I appreciate your input. I’m from Missouri and frequent Springfield for business and shopping. In fact, I go to that very Walmart. My observations of people who see others practicing O/C is a bit different than yours. This guy did a very stupid, but legal, thing. I’m happy no one got hurt. It could have been much worse.

I’ll ask one question of our USCCA family: did this man’s action help or hinder our cause?

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I believe he may have been doing an “open carry audit” (I don’t have any proof). Stupid and tonedeaf due to recent events. If that it so, and when the media finds out, they will be all over this. He definitely hindered our cause to be able to carry responsibly.

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Reports I’m seeing say his FB post stated he was mad at Walmart because of their policy of only selling ammo to 21 and above. Again, I think he’s stupid, but he also had a 1st amendment right to free speech, i.e. protest. Meanwhile in Kentucky protesters are calling for the murder of Senator McConnell…no arrests there…!

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You beat me to the punch on this article! I was going to post it later today. :slight_smile: Nicely done, @Michael7

You even got the question I was going to post! :rofl:

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FOX is reporting he is being charged with making a terroristic threat in the first degree. They have not said what that threat was…more to learn I’m sure.

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pretty good detail on the witness reports here:

The man, 20-year-old Dmitriy N. Andreychenko, was arrested on suspicion of 1st-degree making a terrorist threat.

details on arrest and charges so far, and walmart’s position on it, here:

details on what would - and would not - be a crime under Missouri law here:

The armed firefighter who held him at gunpoint will not be getting in any legal trouble:

Police praised the firefighter’s actions amid the chaos and panic created by the armed man.

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Good post Zee. I wonder if there is more on his social media that hasn’t been released yet?.

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Interested to hear what’s different in your observations - Springfield is as City as we get, everywhere else is smaller. We litterally don’t see any reaction, what are you seeing?

Legal, except for the scaring the daylights out of people… that’s what they’re prosecuting him on.

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FOX says he’s charged with first degree terroristic threats…if O/C equals terroristic threats we have a bigger issue.

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I don’t think that’s what’s happening there.

Almost all the news quotes call out that he was talking and commenting to people as they ran and nobody has posted anything he said… there may be conversation on his part that we’re not yet aware of. If he was saying “yeah you better run” or something like it, that would be the charge.

MO law does call out that OC is fine provided the person isn’t carrying the firearm in a menacing way. In these circumstances, I’d guess he qualifies for “carrying in a menacing way”.

There may be additional charges coming for disturbing the peace or disorderly conduct, for which the guidelines are pretty flexible.

None of the quotes I’ve seen from police have had any “this is why we police don’t like open carry” flavor. I don’t see it being used that way.

Time will tell.

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BTW, “terroristic threats” doesn’t mean anything having to do with terrorism, it only means threats made to create fear.

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Ie certainly is a strange case. It will be worth following.

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Well we have an update on charges, and apparently it’s a bad case of stupid:

Prosecutors explained Friday that making a terrorist threat in the second degree constitutes recklessly disregarding the risk of causing the evacuation of any portion of a building and knowingly communicating an express or implied threat to cause an incident or condition involving danger to life.
Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson explained in a news release Friday that Missouri’s open carry laws don’t give citizens the right to act recklessly. He compared it to free speech laws not allowing people to shout “fire” in a crowded theater, causing panic.

Update on motive:

Andreychenko allegedly said he was testing whether Walmart “honored the Second Amendment.”
According to a probable cause statement, Andreychenko later told police his intention was to buy grocery bags at the store, and he was filming himself in case anyone told him to leave the store.
Andreychenko allegedly said he brought the weapons to protect himself because of the recent mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, and he was surprised by the reaction of other shoppers.
“This is Missouri,” the statement quotes Andreychenko as saying. “I understand if we were somewhere else like New York or California, people would freak out.”
The statement says before Andreychenko went to the Walmart, he asked his sister if she would film him doing a “social experiment,” but she told Andreychenko it was a bad idea in light of the recent shooting in Texas.

His wife summed it up:

Andreychenko’s wife allegedly told police Andreychenko was an immature boy.

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LOL…I couldn’t agree more. Looks like he had two sane people try to dissuade him but…Sometimes you just cant fix stupid. A thumbs up to the people of Springfield for handling a bad situation very well.

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