A Texas woman could potentially have some explaining to do after a misguided attempt to play hero. She fired a gun on a purse snatcher who had been cornered in a Walmart parking lot–even though the thief was unarmed. Now this good gal with a gun could potentially face criminal charges herself.
On Friday afternoon, Andre Dawson (no relation to the retired baseball player) was seen stealing a purse out of a shopping cart at the Walmart in Bellmead, a suburb of Waco. Four or five men chased Dawson through the parking lot before they caught him and pinned him to the ground. A bystander pulled out her cell phone and started recording while the men were struggling to keep Dawson pinned. Watch here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hng2_-oxuQM
Notice the woman in blue jeans and a baseball cap holding a gun on Dawson. At about the 12-second mark of the video, Dawson broke loose, and the woman fired a single shot at him while he was running away. Dawson wasn’t hit, but tripped and fell to the ground briefly. He got back on his feet, but only ran a few more paces down the parking lot before two of the men tackled him.
While Dawson was being subdued, the woman casually walked back to her pickup truck, gun in hand, and drove off just as police arrived. According to witnesses, the woman rolled into the parking lot, saw the commotion, and came out with her gun at the ready. Dawson was arrested without incident on charges of theft and credit card abuse. He is still in the McLennan County jail on $2,000 bond.
Bellmead police spent most of the afternoon searching for the woman. According to Bellmead police spokesman Kory Martin, police wanted to “identify her” and “get her version of what happened” in the parking lot. Later that night, police said that the woman, who came to the Bellmead Police Department for an interview and was released pending further investigation. While police haven’t identified her yet, something happened at that interview was enough that resulted in her case being forwarded to the McLennan County grand jury. Cliff Notes version: somebody, or a whole lot of somebodies, thinks that this woman broke the law herself.
Frankly, it would have been a crime if no action had been taken in this matter at all. What this woman did was unbelievably stupid and dangerous–and to my mind, it was also illegal. What if that bullet hit an innocent bystander in that parking lot? Or if it had hit Dawson? Or if it had hit one of the men trying to subdue Dawson? Or if had flown into a store or restaurant? Or if it had gone into a passing car?
In either case, there would have been no question about it–this woman would be in jail. The fact that Dawson wasn’t even armed and posed no threat makes this woman’s actions even more outrageous. Had a police officer done the same thing, there would have been no defensible reason to let him keep his badge–that is, not in any jurisdiction that didn’t have its collective head up its collective rear end.
Given the circumstances, I suspect that the Bellmead police had a not-so-friendly chat with this woman. I also suspect that she must be one hell of a talker, because there really is no way this woman should have been allowed to go home. Remember, folks, this was in a crowded parking lot in the middle of the day. It could have hit anyone, anywhere. At the very least, this sounds like the definition of reckless endangerment.
The fact that McLennan County district attorney Abel Reyna apparently felt that there was enough to send this case to the grand jury speaks volumes. If I were this woman, I’d have a lawyer on speed dial. Her attempt to play hero in that parking lot could have gotten an innocent person killed. Hopefully the grand jury will do the right thing and force this woman to go before a judge.
