Shocking video shows a California smoke shop security guard pull a gun on group of would-be robbers, sparking a four-on-one shootout that left one person dead Tuesday, cops and reports said.
The worker stands behind a counter at a “Smoke Shop” in Compton and appears to take a shot to the face as he pulls a gun from his belt, according to the video, released Wednesday by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The four alleged thieves scramble and trip over each other as they flee to the back of the store and continue firing shots – sometimes apparently inches from each other’s bodies.
The worker, who is wearing a “security” vest, ducks for cover as a bullet causes the glass display case to shatter, the silent video shows.
The guard somehow managed to escape despite the onslaught, cops said, though he was treated in the hospital with gunshot wounds to the head and neck.
Two of the robbers, identified as Kahlel Lundy, 23, and Keith Rachel, 21, remain on the loose and are wanted for murder, the sheriff’s department said in a news release.
The botched robbery began at 6:54 p.m. Tuesday at the shop on South Wilmington Avenue, the release stated. About 30 minutes after the incident, police responded to a gunshot victim at Martin Luther King Hospital that turned out to be one of the robbers who’d been shot by the security guard, the release said.
That unidentified person died from his wounds, Fox News reported. A second suspect, who also wasn’t named, was arrested Wednesday, according to the release.