“For a moment there I thought we were in trouble.”
A classic line from a classic movie, spoken by Paul Newman playing Butch Cassidy right before he and the Sundance Kid run out of the building they were sheltering in and into a hail of bullets fired by their Bolivian pursuers. Here we have a similar situation acted out in real life. Two armed thugs holed up in a CVS after stealing pills from a CVS in New Orleans made a mad dash out the door to what they hoped would be freedom only to be met by twenty-nine rounds fired by police officers outside.
The New Orleans Advocate reports
Two men trying to steal a trove of pills from an Uptown drugstore last week demanded that New Orleans police blocking the exit “back up” before opening fire and striking an officer, video released on Tuesday showed.
As the officers retreated and sought cover on either side of the Prytania Street store’s front door, the robbers began sprinting across its parking lot. But officers unleashed a hail of bullets at the robbers, wounding them as they ran through the crossfire and leading to their arrests at the end of a clash that Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson called a “sobering” reminder of the job’s perils.
While an investigation into the actions of officers Chad Clark, Everett Route and Shanda Charles during the shootout continues, Ferguson told reporters during a briefing Tuesday that video from the store and police body cameras proved the officers’ actions were justified.
They waited until Clark was hit in the upper left shoulder before firing back, Ferguson said, adding that the officers would have been within their rights to shoot the moment they realized the robbers posed deadly threats.
“This incident … shows the brazenness of individuals who intend on doing harm to our community,” Ferguson said. “But this incident also shows how brave and courageous our officers are.”
Yes, and maybe how they need a bit more training shooting at moving targets. These thugs were in very close proximity to the officers, but after firing all those rounds none of them scored a fatal hit. I mean how is this guy not in a sporting a tag on his toe in a morgue refrigerator right now?
I’ll give Clark a pass because he was wounded and it might have affected his accuracy, but shame on you other two. One thug was able to keep running into the distance, while the other scuttled away on all fours like the mangy dog that he is.
According to police, robbers Richard Sansbury, 26, and Alan Parson, 18, went into the 24-hour CVS in the 4900 block of Prytania about 6:05 a.m. on June 17. They brought pistols, hooded sweatshirts to hide their faces and blue medical gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints. Police said they zip-tied two employees and filled a black trash bag with bottles of pills from a safe.
The two men from Indianapolis were leaving with their loot when they realized the way out had been cut off by Clark, a two-year veteran; Route, a six-year veteran; and Charles, a three-year veteran.
“Stop! Get on the ground! Get on the ground right now!” Clark is heard saying on video from the camera on his chest, with his service pistol drawn.
“We got two. We got two in here,” he told his colleagues.
When one of the robbers raised his pistol, the officers — all in uniform — retreated outside. Clark took a position to the right of the front entrance as his two colleagues stood on the other side.
Well, OK that was one option. But another would have been to just shoot him right then and there. He’s pointing his pistol at them. See?
They could have shot him. It would have been completely justified.
Seconds later, voices coming from inside the store told the police, “Back up! Back up!” The officers stood their ground, and gunfire erupted, wounding Clark.
Clark’s body camera jolted as he fell to the ground and exclaimed, “Oooh!”
Clark got back onto his feet and scrambled for cover behind a nearby concrete pole. Route, with his pistol in one hand and radio in the other, backed up to pillars on the other side of the door, with Charles beside him.
Meanwhile, surveillance video from inside the store showed Sansbury, in a gray hoodie, and Parson, in a dark one, unintentionally spilled the pill bottles from their bag, police said.
They sprinted out of the store and across the parking lot, with both reaching back to fire in the general direction of the officers. The officers directed their own volley of bullets at them as Route radioed for assistance. Sansbury was wounded but escaped.
Meanwhile, the wounded Parson fell on the pavement. When he got back up, he was bent over as he ran, pressing his palms against the ground to keep himself up as he headed away from the parking lot.
Here’s the video. Enjoy.
All told, officers fired 29 times while Sansbury and Parson apparently squeezed off about a dozen shots, Ferguson said, citing spent shell casings recovered from the scene.
Parson was captured after he collapsed in the nearby 1300 block of Lyons Street. Sansbury managed to elude police for a couple of hours longer before heavily armed officers with police dogs cordoned off the surrounding neighborhood and found him in a yard in the 1100 block of Upperline Street.
No store employees were injured.
Paramedics took Sansbury and Parson to a hospital while the wounded officer was taken there by his colleagues. Police haven’t said exactly where Sansbury and Parson were hit. All have been released from the hospital.
Authorities booked Sansbury and Parson on counts of armed robbery, false imprisonment and attempted murder of police.
Both remained jailed Tuesday, with Sansbury’s bail set at $1.15 million and Parson’s at $1.7 million. They could face decades in prison if convicted.
While I’m glad that the officer who was hit was not seriously wounded, I’m still quite upset that these two weren’t turned into two piles of ground round which I assume is what Butch and Sundance ended up looking like in the movie.
Fuego!
