MAN SUBDUES ARMED SHOPLIFTING SUSPECT

When a man wasn't allowed to get away with shoplifting at a Cape Girardeau grocery store Thursday, he loaded a gun, police said.

Shortly before 8 p.m. on Thursday, employees at Schnucks, 19 S. Kingshighway, discovered a man attempting to steal two bottles of gin, Cpl. Kevin Orr said.

As the man walked out of the store, a security guard signaled a Schnucks manager, who assisted in stopping the man and bringing him back into the store.

Shamir Houston, 18, of Owen, Ill., was taken to the store's upper-level offices to wait while a police officer responded to handle the shoplifting case. While Houston was waiting, he removed a .25-caliber pistol from his back pocket and began to load it, Orr said.

Neither of the men who detained the shoplifter were armed, so they ran down the stairs and yelled to customers to leave the immediate area, Cpl. Rickey Price said.

Houston ran out the store's south entrance since the north entrance was closed for remodeling, Price said.

No one was reported injured as the shoplifter ran from the store, police said.

Houston attempted to open the back door of a car that was going past, but the female driver was able to slam the door shut and lock it to prevent his entrance, police said.

He continued running through the parking lot, heading in the direction of Long John Silver's restaurant. He approached a pickup truck in the drive-through lane, opened the passenger door and jumped inside the vehicle driven by Christopher O'Connell of Jackson, Orr said.

"He pointed the gun at the driver's head and told him to drive," Price said.

As officer David McDermott ran in the direction of the truck, the suspect turned his head to look out the vehicle's rear window. As he turned his attention away from O'Connell, the driver grabbed the gun away and hit the suspect, McDermott said.

O'Connell subdued the man until police arrived, Price said.

"By doing this, he might not have only saved his own life but the lives of others as well," Price said.

McDermott pulled the man out of the truck and was able to arrest him without a struggle.

The man had jammed his pistol when he attempted to load it, McDermott said.

Houston was charged with the felony of unlawful use of a weapon and misdemeanors of stealing, resisting arrest and possession of a defaced firearm, Orr said.

He was being held in the Cape Girardeau County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bond.