Wal-Mart responds to Monday’s gun incident

By Susan Jessen
Herald Staff Writer

May 03, 2007 10:53 am

—
CLINTON — Dennis Purcell, co-manager of Clinton’s Wal-Mart Supercenter, has provided the store’s perspective of Monday’s events, when a gun-carrying shopper in their store resulted in a 45-minute search for the suspect by Clinton police.
“The customer did have a permit to carry a gun,” noted Purcell in a telephone interview.
When asked of the store’s response to the initial sighting of the shopper, Purcell said, “We identified the situation and immediately contacted the authorities.”
This seems in contradiction to claims made by “Mick,” the individual who came forward as the gun-carrying shopper, who maintains Wal-Mart had several employees tail him throughout the store before contacting police.
“It’s not the first time we’ve had a customer come into our store with a gun,” added Purcell, who explained the store’s policy is generally to approach the customer and request they take their weapon back to their vehicle. But in Mick’s case, that policy was not implemented.
“Seeing him dressed in camouflage, we chose not to approach him,” said Purcell, who later contradicted this by stating Mick “didn’t look suspicious.”
“But if he had pulled the gun out or started threatening someone, we would have evacuated the store,” Purcell said.