The Gun Counter

Customer fatally shoots attempted robbery suspect
Posted: Thursday, January 16, 2014 8:02 PM EST
Updated: Thursday, January 16, 2014 8:02 PM EST

ORRVILLE, Ala. (AP) - Dallas County sheriff's say a man accused of trying to rob a dollar store in Orrville at gunpoint was fatally shot by a customer.

Sheriff Harris Huffman told the Selma Times-Journal that Kevin McLaughlin, of Dallas County, came into the store carrying a gun and led a group of people into the store's break room.

Authorities say while McLaughlin was giving orders, a customer pulled his gun and fired a single shot, killing the man.

WAKA reports the Dallas County Sheriff's Office is investigating the shooting and no arrests have been made.

Orville is about 16 miles southwest of Selma.

Investigators with the Dallas County Sheriff's Department respond to a reported robbery and shooting at the Dollar General location in Orrville -- Josh Bergeron

Customer shoots, kills gunman at Orrville Dollar General
Published 2:56pm Thursday, January 16, 2014
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Editor’s note: This article has been amended from its original version to clarify the fact that the shooter used his own gun in the incident.

ORRVILLE — One person is dead after a customer at the Dollar General in Orrville began shouting and waving his gun in the air.

Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman said the incident appeared to be a case of self-defense and no one has been arrested in connection with the shooting Thursday afternoon.

The incident occurred when Dallas County resident Kevin Mclaughlin entered Dollar General reportedly waving a pistol in the air, Huffman said. Mclaughlin then ushered a group of people inside the store into a break room.

“It appears that once the cashier got inside the break room, a customer that was walking into the break room shot the individual, the white male, with the pistol,” Huffman said. “There was only one shot fired and that shot struck the individual with the pistol causing the disturbance.”

District Attorney Michael Jackson confirmed the customer who reportedly shot Mclaughlin was Orrville resident Marlo Ellis.

Huffman said Ellis used his own weapon in the incident.

Orrville resident Deforest James said he was in the Dollar General moments before the shooting occurred. James exited the building shortly after Mclaughlin waved the pistol and told customers not to move.

“He said he was looking for three bad mother—-ers and then I ran out and I busted out through the back door,” James said.

Orrville Mayor Louivenia Lumpkin received a call about the incident from her son while at work.

“He said there has been an accident at Dollar General and I thought it might have been a traffic accident,” Lumpkin said. “I was working about two miles away. When I got here I found out that someone had been killed.”

Dallas County resident Riley Powell said he was mere minutes away from being inside the store at the time of the robbery.

“I pulled up to get some foot powder and the sheriff was already here,” Powell said. “I would have been inside the store if I hadn’t decided to take out the trash before coming over.”

Windy Wilson wrote:And no crazy DA with confusion about what side of the law he's on. A happy story all around.

Denis wrote:The only flaw is the fact that the journos and the DA didn't have the good grace or the good sense not to name the righteous shooter to all and sundry. If no arrests were made and no charges are pending, the man has done nothing at all and is entitled to his good name and privacy.