Where I live, people don’t have guns so people just going about their daily toil tend not to be shot dead by angry sociopathic shoplifters. What an absolute tragic mess and waste of, well everything really. But hey, Right to Bear Arms and all that. 
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Another gun in a locked, enclosed space would have doubled the threat rather than reducing it.
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The blame also goes to the cashier for locking the customers in with someone threatening to shoot them!?
Without knowing what was going on, I hesitate to blame him too much. There is no doubt that the shooter is to blame for the shooting. I’ve never heard of locking customers in a store, that seems to have legal repercussions all of it’s own. I can certainly see the clerk panicking when the shooting started and not even thinking about unlocking the door. What is the company policy on this? Why would any company propose unlawful detention at least of the non-felonious customers in the store? And over $3?
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I feel sorry for the cashier. He’s probably doing a shit job for minimum wage (do you even have that in America?) while trying to work his way through night school, and burdened by a load of company rules.
Yes, it was a bad decision to lock the doors with everyone including the gunman inside. But when there is so much gun fuckery all over the US it seems mean to pick on one little guy who made a mistake. It certainly doesn’t address the key problem.
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you got that right. i do not know what i would do initially but i’d like to think if panicked customers were screaming at me to unlock the door, i would unlock the fucking door.
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Its sounding a lot like this entire gas station was an unlicensed gas station, so they probably didn’t really have much care for training workers or anything of that nature. No normal business in Detroit would ever allow customers to be remotely locked in for fear of the legal issues of that.
But this wasn’t a normal business, instead seemingly a criminally run entity.
What makes you say that?
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This is the gas station. What’s not normal or what makes you think it’s a criminal entity?
Eta: From another news story.
Police said Monday that the gas station was unlicensed and was shut down by the Detroit Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department amid the shooting investigation.
Still not sure that makes it a criminal entity though.
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The fact that they weren’t registered and were illegally operating according to the city of detroit.
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Ah, so potentially like me when I like, jaywalk?
Got it, very likely run by “criminals.”
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You’re asking questions again. People never like that.
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No, I mean by people who are not following code or local business laws and probably teach their employees to lock customers inside when someone tries to steal $3. If they’re not going to follow local ordinances, or pay taxes, etc, what makes people think they’re going to train their employees properly?
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That’s my thinking as well; if that’s the case as I suspect, it makes this story extra fucked up.
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Probably, maybe, likely, could be, etc.
We don’t know lots of deets here, but some of us are mighty quick to pull out our Jump to Conclusion mats.
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Anything is easier than facing the truth:
There are too many firearms readily available in a country that was historically built on exploitation and subjugation, where human life and safety matters far less than property and wealth.
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He had an easy means of protecting them. Let the guy go. Give him more stuff to get him to leave.
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if only somebody had said, “hey, i got you, man,” and covered the $3 for the guy. but sounds like nobody even got the chance to offer. heartbreaking.
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Locking the door so that others can’t escape when a guy is threatening to kill them isn’t a good management directive.
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ive seen it done, more than once where i worked.
even in a more normal situation it’s a huge liability issue. especially because legally nothing has been stolen unless it’s left the property - so there’s no crime while the person is still in the store. ( also, never reach inside customer bags or clothing to remove items. it’s very bad form. 
)
risking someone get violent in front of, or at other customers is never worth it.
on the other hand, ive locked the door ( with customers inside ) when someone violent was trying to get into the store. still not a great idea, but it seemed better than the alternative
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