An armed employee at a Youngston, Ohio, bar fatally shot a shotgun-wielding patron after the customer refused to back down from a bar fight.
Ezequiel Rivera, 21, engaged in a heated bar fight with another customer at the Mi Raza bar around 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Rivera and the other combatant were asked to leave, but moments later Rivera returned with a shotgun.
Employees of the bar spotted the armed man on their CCTV and tried close their doors, but it was too late.
“They saw him coming up on video and couldn’t get the doors closed,” said Capt. Brad Blackburn.
That’s when a Mi Raza employee, armed with a licensed concealed carry pistol, fired two warning shots into the ceiling, warning Rivera to drop his gun.
Unfortunately, Rivera refused, and the employee fired an unknown number of rounds, fatally striking the man.
Rivera’s brother-in-law, Steve Gonzalez, was also on scene and was accidentally shot in the back as he was trying to deescalate the situation.
Gonzalez was transported to an area hospital and his current condition is unknown.
The employee of the bar has yet to be charged, and witnesses say the shooting was clearly in self-defense.
(This article was submitted by freelance writer Brent Rogers, H/T: Guns.com)
The employee was lucky. In similar cases, firing a warning shot is evidence that there was no imminent threat to his life, and therefore the use of lethal force was unjustified. Always shoot to kill – no warning shots, no wounding shots. If I am ever in the same kind of situation, if I draw my gun it means I have already decided I will fire it.
What more can be said-?
Stupid actions that endanger other’s are best to be avoided; fair warning was given and the right person paid with their life as many more innocent people could’ve been hurt or killed by an out of control knuckle head.