Armed robber shot and killed in Omaha

General General Discussion
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http://www.ketv.com/news/23275007/detail.html

Customer Shoots, Kills Would-Be Armed Robber

An armed robber was shot and killed in an Omaha business Monday night, police said. Investigators said a customer intervened and fired on the gunman.

The robbery took place at the Walgreen’s store at 61st Street and Northwest Radial Highway at 8:50 p.m.

Police said two masked individuals walked into the store. One of them was armed with a short shotgun. The gunman pointed the weapon at customers and at the clerk behind the counter.

A man who had a permit to carry a gun saw the robber point the weapon at the clerk and pulled out his handgun and shot the suspect multiple times, police said. The robber, identified by police as 18-year-old Marquail Thomas, stumbled out of the store and collapsed.

He was taken to Creighton University Medical Center, where he later died.

The man, Harry J. McCullough, 32, was cited because he didn’t have a permit that allowed him to carry the gun concealed.

The second robbery suspect was detained until police arrived. Angelo Douglas, 17, has been arrested on suspicion of robbery and use of a weapon to commit a felony.

Investigators said McCullough was questioned and released after conferring with the Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine.

County Attorney: Shooter Justified

McCullough was in the store picking up prescriptions and buying ice cream when he decided to open fire on the suspected robber, his attorney said.

“My client acted quickly, responsibly, and certainly accurately,” said attorney James Martin Davis.

The county attorney said McCullough acted quickly.

“He didn’t let them get more than past the metal detectors,” Kleine said. He decided he wouldn’t file any charges, even adding that McCullough did the right thing.

“People shouldn’t enter stores with short shotguns and try and rob people. And it’s as simple as that. Fortunately, it turned out that the perpetrator was taken out, and the other perpetrator was arrested,” Kleine said.

Davis said McCullough was crying in his office on Tuesday. He said McCullough was shaken up by what happened and will seek counseling.

The city prosecutor is still reviewing the citation against McCullough

McCullough is a hero and should have his taxes rebated to him for life!

Buckaroo

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Interesting even though he “did the right thing”, that they didnt cite him for not having a permit to carry that weapon.

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They did cite him. Wouldn’t surprise me if they dropped it.

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You are correct, I missed that part.

Debatable on whether or not they should drop charges, while the shooting was justified he still broke the law.

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What? What the hell? The guy shouldn’t be charged, the law should be under review not the guy…

We keep passing laws and worrying about victims rights…we need to look at the bigger picture.
Just like the anti illegal immigration law that AZ passed, the liberals are howling about the potential for racism and loss of personal rights and freedoms of hispanics!! How many times have we heard the other side claim that the loss of freedoms and liberties (ie gun control, wire taps, etc…) are acceptable for greater good of the nation? :mad:
We have a border that is a sieve and any illegal can cross at will. Some of them are just wanting a better life, but a lot of them are carrying drugs trafficking people and all kinds of other shit. So I think the loss of certain freedoms and liberties of Hispanics is for the greater good and if they really care about the country and it’s future they’ll deal with it.

So tired of bullshit.

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This actually happened just a few miles from the homestead. We go to that Walgreens fairly often to rent Redbox movies.

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A man who had a permit to carry a gun saw the robber point the weapon at the clerk and pulled out his handgun and shot the suspect multiple times, police said. The robber, identified by police as 18-year-old Marquail Thomas, stumbled out of the store and collapsed.

He was taken to Creighton University Medical Center, where he later died.

The man, Harry J. McCullough, 32, was cited because he didn’t have a permit that allowed him to carry the gun concealed.

Does this mean he had a permit to open carry, but not conceal? I’m not sure I understand this part of the story. Maybe I’m just tired, and don’t get it.

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Good job on the shooter’s part.

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A man who had a permit to carry a gun saw the robber point the weapon at the clerk and pulled out his handgun and shot the suspect multiple times, police said. The robber, identified by police as 18-year-old Marquail Thomas, stumbled out of the store and collapsed.

He was taken to Creighton University Medical Center, where he later died.

The man, Harry J. McCullough, 32, was cited because he didn’t have a permit that allowed him to carry the gun [COLOR=“DarkRed”]concealed[/COLOR].

UM, WTH? can some one from this state explain this to me?
A permit to carry open and another to carry concealed?

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Omaha has permits for OC and CC. Nebraska’s laws are varied and depending on what city you’re in you can get hemmed up pretty quickly depending on the situation. Here’s an updated article that explains it. http://www.nptelegraph.com/articles/2010/04/28/news/state/40000322.txt

World-Herald News Service

OMAHA - A 32-year-old Omaha man planned only to pick up a prescription and buy ice cream when he went to his local Walgreens in the Benson neighborhood.

Instead, Harry J. McCullough III shot and killed a would-be-robber, 18-year-old Marquail Thomas.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Tuesday afternoon that McCullough’s use of deadly force was “appropriate and justified” and that he would not be charged in the slaying.

“There’s no question that he had the right to defend himself and protect the lives of the others in the store,” Kleine said.

Nebraska law allows an individual to use force when his life or another person’s life is threatened.

However, McCullough was cited by police for carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor.

He had a permit to carry a loaded handgun in plain view - for example, in a holster - but he did not have a concealed weapons permit, said Omaha Police Officer Jacob Bettin.

McCullough pulled his handgun from the waistband of his pants before he shot Thomas, authorities said.

Kleine said civilians normally shouldn’t put their lives at risk to prevent a crime.

However, “If someone feels threatened, they have the right to defend themselves,” he said.

No one else in the store was injured.

Mark Bohaty, a firearms instructor in Bruno, said he didn’t know the details of what happened in the Walgreens store.

Bohaty said he teaches students in his firearms courses that using lethal force cannot be a gun carrier’s first option when threatened.

“It is truly a last-resort type of thing,” he said.

“The threat needs to be real, immediate, and they must be convinced that if they don’t use deadly force, they are going to suffer critical injury or death as a result of the threat against them,” a family member or a stranger.

Bohaty said people must use their judgment on whether lethal force is appropriate.

“There’s no pat answer,” he said.

Police said two masked men entered the Walgreens at 6101 Northwest Radial shortly before 9 p.m. Monday.

McCullough had just purchased his items and was placing his credit card back into his wallet, said his lawyer, James Martin Davis.

One of the robbers, identified as Thomas, pointed a short shotgun in the direction of the cash register, where several customers were standing in line and told them not to move.

Davis said his client was armed with a .40 caliber pistol and fired after Thomas put the shotgun against the back of a woman using the ATM machine near the store entrance.

Davis said McCullough described Thomas’ weapon as a Remington 870 sawed-off shotgun that holds five rounds. Kleine said the shotgun was not loaded.

Thomas dropped the shotgun and fled from the store, but he collapsed outside.

The second man, 17-year-old Angelo Douglas, scurried to the back of the store.

Police are still looking for a getaway driver who drove out of the parking lot after Thomas fled the store.

Robert Elfinger, a spokesman for Walgreens, said the store is cooperating with police and declined to comment further. The store opened at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Several customers were shopping and a few chatted about the incident.

Davis said McCullough has held several security jobs, which was why he carried his weapon frequently.

McCullough worked in security at the College of Saint Mary from April to October in 2008, a human resources employee at the college said. He currently is employed by the Nebraska Medical Center, Davis said, but not as a security officer.

McCullough was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon in 1997. Davis said that case involved a knife. He was convicted of driving under the influence in Washington County in 2006.

Douglas was booked into the Douglas County Youth Center on suspicion of robbery and use of a weapon to commit a felony. Kleine had not decided on charges against Douglas as of Tuesday night.

Douglas has no criminal record, other than misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of law. Those charges were transferred to juvenile court in March.

Thomas was convicted of obstructing the law earlier this month in Douglas County Court and served three days in jail. He also was convicted of possessing an ounce or less of marijuana in Douglas County in December.

It was almost exactly a year ago - April 29, 2009 - that Thomas was shot when two males approached a crowd near 21st and Evans Street and and opened fire.

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irishluck73 :
Thanks. I’m Damn glad I live where I do.

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Too bad they got rid of “reasonable and prudent” where you live. :smiley:

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I wonder if a good lawyer would have been able to get him out of the OC/CC thing. Could anyone prove that you didn’t have it OC, or prove that is was CC’ed? I wouldn’t want to taint a good shoot with semantics about the draw though.

If he broke the law, hopefully he can get off easy on the CC charge, but the law is the law. I’m kind of a law-and-order Liberterian. I’d like less laws, but we’d better follow the ones we have.

Didn’t have to add that they guy cried at the police station. Did they include that the robber cried for his momma and crapped himself?

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http://www.omaha.com/article/20100429/NEWS97/100429444#walgreens-shooter-speaks-out

Harry James McCullough took it personally. The former security guard was standing at a Walgreens checkout counter when he saw two masked men, one with a sawed-off shotgun, enter the store. Marquail Thomas, 18, pointed the shotgun at customers and yelled, “Nobody (expletive) move!‘’

“There’s no doubt in my mind what they were going to do,” McCullough said Thursday. “There was no time to react. You only have one chance.”

McCullough pulled out a pistol and shot Thomas four times. Thomas collapsed outside the store and died later at a hospital.

McCullough chased down the second masked man, whom Omaha police have identified as Angelo Douglas, 17, and held him until officers arrived. Jauvier Perkins, 15, who police said was the getaway driver, was arrested Wednesday.

Prosecutors said all three are known gang members.

McCullough said he had no idea whom he was dealing with.

“I took it personal,” he said. “I was the only one in that situation that could have made it any better, so I took action.”

McCullough said he never expected something like this to happen at his neighborhood drugstore, which he visits at least once a month to pick up a prescription for migraine headaches.

“I didn’t have time to be scared,” he said. “It happened so quickly. You have to swell up and be bigger than your surroundings. If you portray yourself as big as a bear, you are a bear.”

McCullough will not be charged in the Monday night shooting, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine has said. McCullough was cited by police for carrying a concealed weapon. His attorney, James Martin Davis, said he will seek to have the ticket dismissed.

[b]McCullough said he has had firearms training, shoots guns competitively and has had security jobs.

“I carry my gun everywhere I go. It’s like my wallet,” he said. “It’s a personal protection and a safety thing.”

He has a valid permit to carry a gun in plain view, typically in a holster. Police said he pulled the pistol from his waistband.

McCullough said he never applied for a state permit to carry a concealed weapon because it cost “extra money” and he felt that Omaha’s carry permit was “sufficient.” [/b]
It’s been a tough week for Harry James McCullough III, an Omaha native. He said he’s shaky and hasn’t been able to eat or sleep much, taking only catnaps. He said the thought of retaliation is “in the back of my mind,” so he doesn’t stay at one place for a long period of time.

However, he said, he isn’t going to change his life because of fears about what might happen. He plans to continue to carry a gun if he isn’t convicted of a concealed weapons violation.

“I’m not going to sit in a corner and hide,” he said. “I’m going to live my life.”

McCullough appeared stoic and reserved during a nearly 30-minute press conference Thursday.

He said he has been interested in weapons since he was a child.

McCullough shot Thomas with a .40-caliber pistol. He said that the weapon can hold 15 rounds and that he remembers shooting four times Monday night.

The shotgun Thomas was carrying was unloaded.

Kleine said McCullough fired eight rounds, hitting Thomas four times.

Thomas was shot once in the right hand, once in the left arm, once in the middle of the chest and once in the lower back. Kleine said the wound to the back doesn’t mean that McCullough shot Thomas as he was running away. He said the shots could have spun Thomas around.

Kleine said a bullet from the pistol was found inside the barrel of the shotgun, indicating that Thomas was aiming his gun at McCullough.

McCullough said he feels for Thomas’ family, calling the shooting “unfortunate.‘’ But he felt he had to act.

“To me, he’s just a robber in a mask,” he said. “I think the city has had enough of the crime.”

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http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/92532359.html

The Nebraska Firearms Owner Association has offered to buy a new handgun for the man who shot and killed a robbery suspect at an Omaha Walgreens.

Harry “James” McCullough, 32, said he’s been overwhelmed by the support from people appreciative of his actions. On Monday, April 26th, he noticed two men, one of them armed with a shotgun, threaten the clerk and another customer at the Walgreens on 61st and NW Radial. That’s when he shot the man 4-times, killing him. McCullough then held down the other suspect until police arrived. “You only have one chance,” is what he told reporters on Thursday about his reaction.

McCullough who worked in corporate security shoots competitively twice a month at a local gun club. “I carry (my gun) everywhere. It’s like a wallet.”

Omaha Police have taken his gun, a Smith and Wesson 40-caliber, for the investigation. It may take months for him to get it back.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine determined the shooting was justified.

Andy Allen, President of the Nebraska Firearms Owner Association said on the website: “He needs a new carry gun, and the NFOA Board of Directors has made arrangements with an FFL member in the Omaha area to get another S&W for him at dealer cost. The Board has also offered to pay for this firearm for him, and request donations from our members to cover this expense. We had not intended to publicize this donation at this time, but Mr. McCullough thought we should be recognized for our efforts to help him continue to have a way to protect himself.”

McCullough was ticketed for carrying concealed without a permit. Investigators say he had the proper paperwork to carry the gun out in the open but not concealed. McCullough says he carries it in his waistband.
Omaha city prosecutor Marty Conboy hasn’t determined if there is enough evidence to charge him.

McCullough’s attorney believes the citation should be dropped because of the lives he saved.

Andy Allen talked to Channel 6 News Friday. He tells us enough money has been promised to buy McCullough a gun. However, when McCullough went to OPD Headquarters Friday afternoon to apply for a permit to buy a new gun, his permit was denied. Allen says no reason was given by police for the denial.

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I didn’t really feel comfortable sharing the info on TOS, but I think it would probably be OK here. His youtube channel is str8shooterjim. I’ve shot with him at the 5.11 matches.:wink: He’s a pretty good shot. We have another one coming up this Saturday, but i don’t think he’ll be there. :frowning:

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Someone must have watched the dynamic handgun dvd before they went to work :cool: All jokes aside fucking awesome story. I’m glad 2 more scumbags are of the streets of America

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In Omaha, you need to have a permit from the city to open carry.

In the rest of Nebraska, you do not need a permit to open carry. No state issued permit exists for open carry in Nebraska. You just do it, if you want.

Nebraska also has a regular state issued concealed carry permit like most other states.

You also don’t need a concealed carry permit in Nebraska to carry concealed if you have an “affirmative defense” such as transporting expensive or high risk items such as pharmaceuticals, large amounts of money, weaponry, etc. A restraining order against some violent person usually also qualifies.

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That’s cool. Are you sure, sounds suspiciously like some politician was using some common sense;)?

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If you are going to forgo the CCW permit and use the affirmative defense and get caught, you better have a good lawyer or be well connected in NE or else they might not consider your affirmative defense good enough.

Carrying around $500 of cash is not good enough.