I don’t buy that the costco employee had anything to do with this except for calling the police.
The cops could have easily seen he wasn’t acting irrationally.
I dunno. It seems to me that the report of a man acting erratically could—and I emphasize could— have gotten the police revved up to some degree. I was not, on the other hand, emphasizing this particular case, I was instead indicating that it would be good policy for all dispatchers to get detailed information for the police other than “a man with a gun.”
Note that the police did not confront Mr. Scott in the store where he was supposed to be tearing up stuff; instead, they met him amongst other customers at the store’s door. It seems to me that the closeness of the encounter contributed to the gross misunderstanding.
Reads to me as though the Costco manager had been trained by a national corporate policy to perform actions X,y,z in a hostile armed circumstance. Probably over-reacted, so much so that the PA system was used to direct all shoppers to leave the premises.
That action alone for a major bulk sales outlet has to cause a sizable dent in daily revenue and goodwill.
Compound this with the newsworthy incident outside, and IMHO, Costco will be lucky to resolve this out of court.
This brings up another issue regarding Corporate policies implemented in multiple States where local and State laws allow for open carry and CCW permits. How much of this issue is caused by a poorly thought out Corporate policy prepared for New England and implemented in Nevada?