Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Wounded customer crashed car en route to hospital. Police booked him with threatening clerk.
Roderick Bennett got more than he bargained for when he pulled a gun on a clerk at a Central City retail store, judging from documents that New Orleans police filed in court.
Not only did the clerk also produce a firearm and shoot him, Bennett, in trying to drive to a hospital for treatment, crashed his car. And on Thursday, police arrested him on a charge of threatening the clerk in the first place.
They booked Bennett, 49, with aggravated assault with a gun and possession of a gun by a convicted felon.
Police said Bennett was arguing an item's price April 11 with an employee at the Dollar General store in the 2800 block of South Claiborne Avenue. A witness told them that Bennett pointed a gun at the employee, prompting the employee to shoot him in the chest.
Bennett crawled to his car, but en route to a hospital, he crashed the vehicle, police wrote in documents filed in Criminal District Court. Someone picked him and drove him the rest of the way, and he was taken into surgery in critical condition, the documents say.
Six days later, detectives interviewed Bennett. He told them he didn't remember anything, including the argument.
On April 26, police interviewed the store employee. He said Bennett started the argument and soon asked him to go outside to fight.
Surveillance video showed Bennett leaving the store by the front door, then pulling a gun and approaching the employee as they argued, police said. The employee, too, pulled out a gun and fired it, striking Bennett.
Magistrate Commissioner Jay Daniels set Bennett's bail at $95,000 on Friday.