The Good Samaritan’s Pistol

Posted on | March 31, 2014 | 33 Comments

Jazz Shaw at Hot Air highlighted this cheerful story Sunday: A gunman walked into a Dollar General store in Orrville, Alabama, and “began shouting and waving a gun around, herding customers and an employee into a back room.” But the story had a happy ending because a customer named Marlo Ellis is a concealed carry permit (CCP) holder, and he knew exactly what to do:

“There was only one shot fired and that shot struck the individual with the pistol causing the disturbance.”

“Law enforcement officials are calling Marlo Ellis
a hero in the wake of Thursday’s shooting at
the Dollar General in Orrville. . . .
“In Alabama you have the right of self defense of
yourself or of a third party. So when the
perpetrator went in there with a gun, waving
the gun, anybody in there had the right to use
deadly force. So that’s what happened and [Ellis]
actually was a Good Samaritan in this situation.”

God bless Marlo Ellis, and God bless Alabama.

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Category: Alabama, Crime

Comments

33 Responses to “The Good Samaritan’s Pistol”

texlovera
March 31st, 2014 @ 11:19 am

Hitting your target.

THAT is gun control.
Cube
March 31st, 2014 @ 11:57 am

Right on. So is “Bad guys lose”.
Animal
March 31st, 2014 @ 12:06 pm

Good shot!
tahDeetz
March 31st, 2014 @ 12:10 pm

RT @smitty_one_each: TOM The Good Samaritan’s Pistol http://t.co/27Cxkfb8b7 #TCOT
PATR2014
March 31st, 2014 @ 12:12 pm

RT @smitty_one_each: TOM The Good Samaritan’s Pistol http://t.co/27Cxkfb8b7 #TCOT
M. Thompson
March 31st, 2014 @ 1:15 pm

Good way to break up my day. Thanks.
Anamika
March 31st, 2014 @ 1:36 pm

I’m not sure a disarmed citizenry surrounded by dutiful policemen under political control is much better — and in most major American cities concealed firearms are prohibited absent a hard to get permit.
hygate
March 31st, 2014 @ 2:15 pm

I live in Alabama, and I’m rather shocked that anyone would be stupid enough to attempt to rob a place as described. Concealed carry is common in the start. Chances are good that one or more people are carrying whenever you go into a store or any other public place. The perp had to be both incredibly stupid and very much desperate for a fix.
Anamika
March 31st, 2014 @ 2:28 pm

The big news happening right now is the anti-fatal shooting(s) protests in Albuquerque, but RSM doesn’t feel the need to cover it, ’cause it doesn’t immediately fit into his larger narrative of liberals endangering the lives of unarmed citizens.
Zohydro
March 31st, 2014 @ 2:35 pm

Here tell they ain’t doing none too well in a heap of urban areas neither…
Zohydro
March 31st, 2014 @ 2:37 pm

“Gun control” isn’t about guns, it’s about control!

(I saw that on a tee shirt…)
Julie Pascal
March 31st, 2014 @ 2:56 pm

That has something to do with anything? I’ll say, first… I’m currently sitting about four blocks from where the protests were.

I’ll say, second… during the height of the Iraq war, it was more dangerous to be a cop in Albuquerque than to be from Albuquerque and stationed in Iraq. Third… APD has a reputation for shooting first. Fourth… an outside, neutral party (the FBI) is investigating. Fifth… the protesters were their own worst enemies, doing gawd awful stupid things like walking up on the freeway because… cars… or something.

Last… I don’t know what Stacy McCain could possibly know about what is going on in Albuquerque.
Julie Pascal
March 31st, 2014 @ 3:01 pm

I worked with a lady who’s boyfriend/babydaddy was killed by the Albuquerque police. She was really involved in the efforts to get justice for those murdered by the police.

She also, before he died, had been taking EMT classes so that she could patch him up when he got shot or cut because he was a *criminal* who was continually involved in violence.

When someone who you love is killed by the cops, you don’t generally nod and say, well… can’t blame them because I’m sure he had a gun and was up to no good. Doesn’t. Happen.
ZZZZZZZZ
March 31st, 2014 @ 3:26 pm

If you’ve ever lived in a “shall issue” state, you weren’t paying attention.

No, cancel that — you just aren’t paying attention. The comment after “God bless Marlo Ellis, and God bless Alabama.”, I mean.
Anamika
March 31st, 2014 @ 3:33 pm

Last… I don’t know what Stacy McCain could possibly know about what is going on in Albuquerque.

I’m not even in the country but I’m very much aware of James Boyd brutal shooting even before the protest.

RSM is a blogger and he should be aware of the protest, it’s all over the news.
ZZZZZZZZ
March 31st, 2014 @ 3:34 pm

This story about the Second Amendment. The Albuquerque story relates to the Fourth through Eighth Amendments. And possibly the Ninth as well.

So I fail to see why you should drag in this red herring, they don’t have much in common, unless you are including “scarey” guns [cue eerie background music].

What, are you hoping that RSM will stop blogging about all of your leftie tart friends?
Quartermaster
March 31st, 2014 @ 3:35 pm

You obviously haven’t been paying attention. The blog has a new name “Today in Porn.”

No need to thank me.

Seriously, He’s under no obligation to cover/comment on everything going on.
Anamika
March 31st, 2014 @ 3:37 pm

People didn’t protest for every police fatal shooting. James Boyd death is a different story.
ZZZZZZZZ
March 31st, 2014 @ 3:41 pm

Start your own blog. It’s easy, it’s cheap. You just have to work at it to make it successful.

And that last point is why you’ll never start a blog.
Anamika
March 31st, 2014 @ 3:42 pm

He’s under no obligation to cover/comment on everything going on.

Of course. I’m just suggesting why he might choose some and deliberately ignore others.
Quartermaster
March 31st, 2014 @ 3:51 pm

That’s his prerogative. It certainly doesn’t have to fit yours for him to blog on it.

I’m aware of the shooting, and it does bother me. But, then, I’ve come to dislike and distrust the Police and I think there are very good reasons for that distrust and dislike.
ZZZZZZZZ
March 31st, 2014 @ 3:52 pm

Sacré bleu! A leftie complaining about selective reporting?!??!!!

Quick, somebody call CNN and the New York Times!
RS
March 31st, 2014 @ 4:32 pm

What a silly bit of attempted misdirection and a gratuitous insult toward RSM, all evidencing an ignorance what’s really going on.

Actually, if the Albuquerque PD is busily gunning down the citizenry without cause, it fits in quite well with an over-militarized police force attempting to exert inordinate amounts of control over the populace. The stories are legion regarding “no knock” raids for the most insipid of reasons. The time is long past where police could be considered without question as a “friend.” They are not concerned with protecting the public from bona fide threats. They are concerned with enforcing the thousands of obscure laws which Progressives have enacted to insinuate the State into every aspect of our lives. And coming full circle, it’s for that reason that the Second Amendment exists.
rustypaladin
March 31st, 2014 @ 6:01 pm

No, the reason he had a permit was that it was his natural and Constitutional right. Not being from the United State, maybe you just don’t understand that.
Kirby McCain
March 31st, 2014 @ 6:22 pm

It was a warning shot. I actually enjoyed the Lone Ranger.
K-Bob
March 31st, 2014 @ 7:04 pm

Bonus: Alabama is an open carry state, too.

In Alabama, you can either be a criminal, or live. There’s a thin band of grey area between those extremes, but they’re working on getting rid of it.
Bob Belvedere
March 31st, 2014 @ 7:17 pm

Damn well put.
Julie Pascal
March 31st, 2014 @ 8:00 pm

It’s been an issue for a long time. The difference with Boyd is that he was a harmless homeless guy. And there was video. And he had turned enough at the last moment to get shot in the back.

Everyone was already plenty mad about the cops shooting people that everyone knew were criminals.

Not that the Boyd death is necessarily a different story… there’s some question if he was a harmless homeless guy, or a crazy-ass violent homeless guy. But no one is particularly interested in waiting for the FBI verdict.
Julie Pascal
March 31st, 2014 @ 8:04 pm

You might be aware of it, but you don’t understand the political/community context that it happened in. Neither does Stacy.

It’s complicated.
WaltPimbley
March 31st, 2014 @ 9:37 pm

RT @smitty_one_each: TOM The Good Samaritan’s Pistol http://t.co/27Cxkfb8b7 #TCOT
Garym
April 1st, 2014 @ 12:07 am

When I lived in the Duke City, I had my share of run ins with homeless nutjobs. I had to physically remove a homeless man from the old Albuquerque Hilton (which is now a Crown Plaza). Everywhere I ever lived in ABQ there was crime and violence. I have a stepbrother who got rolled by cholos on Coal and Maple back in the early eighties, and a step daughter who had everything of value stolen out of her house (Westgate) back in November of last year.
I’m betting that nothing much has changed since I lived there 15 years ago. The police are probably on edge and trigger happy because of it.
rustypaladin
April 1st, 2014 @ 12:50 pm

I haven’t watched the video that is out there that shows the incident. From what I understand, Boyd was threatening the police with a knife. This does not get the police off the hook (maybe they could have handled it differently, maybe he was too nutty to be talked down regardless of how they handled it) but, if true, it sure does help their case.
Julie Pascal
April 1st, 2014 @ 8:51 pm

I saw one of the posters up for the protest next to campus… “Police murder man for camping!” and then in smaller print on the side, “it’s time to start killing police.”

Someone put this up… all over.