Legally-armed citizen won't be prosecuted in fatal Mandeville shooting

A legally-armed citizen who fatally shot an attacker at a Mandeville convenience store in April will not be prosecuted, St. Tammany Parish District Attorney Warren Montgomry said Friday (May 27). Mandeville police investigators concluded Shawn Breland, 42, of Folsom, was the aggressor at the Shell gasoline station and convenience store at 3959 Louisiana 22.

"Although Mr. Breland's death is a tragedy, this office agrees that the shooting was legally justified under the circumstances and will not pursue criminal changes based on the evidence submitted to date," Montgomery said in a news release that included surveillance camera video of the incident. (See video above. Warning: graphic content).

Police Chief Rick Richard has said the customer was lawfully carrying the firearm on his side in plain view. "Louisiana is an open-carry state. The guy was straight-up legal," Richard said on the day of the shooting.

Neither police nor the district attorney's office has publicly identified the armed citizen. Breland died at Lakeview Regional Medical Center shortly after the 10 a.m. shooting on April 4.

The customer, carrying a holstered handgun on his side, fatally wounded Breland after Breland attacked him, police have said. They described Breland as "highly agitated" during the incident.

I have never had to use a gun to protect myself or anyone else. But my wife who at around 100 pounds is much smaller than even most women these days has been “saved” on two occasions by the presence of a handgun. Neither occasion resulted in shots being fired.

The first time she was in her Suzuki Samurai, a jeep like vehicle. It was during the time when the Rodney King riots were taking place. We some trouble here as well.

My wife was in a line of cars at a stop light a mile from where we grew up. Two black thugs walked up to her vehicle and started unsnapping the top and trying to get in. She was not able to get out of the line of vehicles. The man behind her had two small children in the vehicle with him, but he got our of his small pick-up using his door as cover and held his gun over the edge of the opening from his rolled down window. Then he got the two black guys attention. They ran off saying they were just having fun and didn’t want any trouble.

The man was a soldier from down south. We have a big military base near by. My wife thanked him profusely. After that she became much more aware of her surroundings at all times and insisted that we get concealed weapons permits, join a gun club and get training and practice.

The next time my wife was much more prepared. She was at a local mall. She had parked near where they were doing some new construction. As she walked back to her car a group of black youths started following her and making obscene remarks. She started walking faster and they started trotting to catch up with her. She had a hand gun in her holster purse. Before they could get to her, she turned around putting her hand in the compartment that was in the bottom of her purse that held the pistol so that she could draw if need be. Using her most stern mother’s voice she told them in no uncertain terms to “back off”.

They were apparently familiar with holster purses, and the defensive firing position she took. They realized that it would probably be easier to pick on some other helpless looking victim. They took an immediate about face and ran off using a bunch of obscenities as they retreated. She did not have to draw her weapon but she had practiced at the range using her holster purse on many previous occasions. She was ready to use the pistol to make some well placed shots. She considered it a great day because she didn’t get hurt and it may have caused the young criminals who had intended to do her harm that there are people who are prepared to defend themselves.

As long as the criminal element can victimize people with little chance of repercussion, crime will continue to increase and the efforts of the police will not be able to keep things under control. As I mentioned I worked with the police almost every time I went to work as a firefighter for 25 years. My favorite uncle is a retired police officer. I have asked police officers for advice and guidance many times. Almost all have been very supportive of responsible citizens getting training and carrying firearms for their own protection and the protection of others.

The police cannot be everywhere and where we live 4 sheriffs deputies were gunned down and killed by a deranged black criminal who had recently moved here from Arkansas while they sat in a coffee shop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakewood,_Washington_police_officer_shooting

So there are times when the armed public needs to be watching out for police. And this is becoming more true every day. In our area we are beginning to be over run by outsiders who are hostile towards us. Where we live we can no longer just be passive and just depend on the police for our safety. I wish we could. For a while it seemed like things were getting better, but since Obama was elected things have taken a definite turn for the worse. It is very, very sad and I take now joy that it has come to this, but at this point people need to take more responsibility for their own safety and the safety of others.

Thank you for that pleasant reply.

As I have said, in the area I live you can not stand on a corner of a main drag for ten or 15 minutes without an LEO of some sort driving by. One of the main reasons is that we live in such a close proximity to New Orleans and NOBODY wants that crap coming over here. Louisiana considers your car to be an extension of your house. Because of that you can carry a loaded weapon anywhere in your car as long as you are not a felon. Most of the people I know carry a weapon in their vehicles. I do. One thing I don't do is open carry. It draws too much attention from the LEO's. The cops won't hassle you but they may question you.

BTW, I can be in the French Quarter in 35 to 45 minutes from my house, depending on traffic. It's been very quiet so far this weekend here. Here is what is happening in NOLA.

15 violent crimes in 10 hours in New Orleans on Memorial Day weekend

Where I live we support our LEO's and we arm ourselves. An armed society is a polite society

Thanks for telling us how it is in Louisiana. I can understand how you would perceive this situation differently than others here. I am sorry that others responded with hostility. There really is no need for that.

Unfortunately, we live in a very liberal area. Open carry is basically allowed in Washington State, but very few people actually do it. Around here it freaks people out and is basically asking for difficulty.

We live in an unincorporated part of the county. There are not a lot of deputies available at any one time. Historically, this has been OK, but the population has more than tripled since I was born and doubled in just the last 30 years. This is from people moving into the state from other areas, with more from California than any other state. This has caused a lot of changes, mostly bad. In a lot of places the infrastructure including police protection has not kept pace. This has created an opportunity for criminals who pray on a population that is not used to having to worry about being responsible for their own safety.

Unlike many others here, I did not grow up with guns and never carried until my wife became concerned for her safety. I was gone for 24 hours at a time whenever I went to work and she did not feel safe, especially after the incidents that I mentioned.

Neither of us would ever go out of our way to use our guns to try and prevent crime that was not likely to become life threatening especially if it did not involve us. That is the job of the police. We would consider using them if we found ourselves in a situation where the lives of others were being threatened and we were likely to be able make a difference. We would certainly use them to protect our own or our family’s safety.

A few years ago a psycho started shooting up one of the malls with a semi-auto rifle and several high capacity magazines of cartridges. A good Samaritan with a handgun confronted the guy and told him to drop his weapon. The psycho shot and nearly killed the good Samaritan; he was permanently paralyzed when a rifle bullet severed his spinal column.

My wife and I both agreed that we would never have confronted the psycho with the rifle. If a psycho with a rifle came close enough to us that we could take him out with our handguns we would do it without any warning and preferably from a position of cover.

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