Sometimes alleged convenience store criminals get more than they bargained for. Perhaps the clerk turns out to be an Iraq War Vet. Perhaps a cop stops them from leaving the scene (and the escape attempt goes viral). But for deputies in Polk County, Fla., a certain store owner went way too far in stopping a beer thief. Mehedeun Hasan, 22, faces charges of attempted second-degree murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle for allegedly opening fire on Rennie Defoe Jr., 43.
This happened Tuesday, according to the arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime. It allegedly began when Defoe grabbed three 18-packs of beer from the gas station co-owned by Hasan and his father.
As seen on surveillance video, a man in a gray shirt (identified as Defoe), leaves without apparently paying. The clerks chase him. The man in a gray shirt can now be seen outside. He tosses the beers onto the passenger seat of a white sedan, and steps inside to make his getaway. The clerk in a red shirt (identified as Hasan) has other ideas. He raises a black handgun up to the driver-side window. The man chases after the vehicle as it reverses and drives off.
Defoe turned up at the scene of a car crash, deputies said. EMS determined a gunshot entered the exterior of his left arm, exited the interior, and entered his chest.
Hasan had been the one to call 911 about the shooting. He allegedly told the operator that he opened fire, but claimed that Defoe tried to shoot him first. Under questioning by deputies, both Hasan and his father claimed Defoe threatened to kill the father, and Hasan said that is when he went to get his gun. Once Defoe was in the car, Hasan claimed to see the man’s right hand near the center console of the vehicle, and he feared that Defoe was reaching for a weapon. He said he opened fire through the window. The car backed up, and Hasan chased the vehicle so he could get the tag number, he said. It was during this time that the gun accidentally fired another time.
But the arresting deputy wrote that that surveillance footage contradicted Hasan’s story. Footage showed that Hasan immediately ran to the office to get the gun, the affidavit stated. A muzzle flash wasn’t seen when he put the firearm to the window–Hasan shot into the vehicle as Defoe was driving away, the deputy wrote. Neither father nor son said they saw the victim with a weapon, the affidavit stated.
Now this store owner faces prison time because Defoe is in critical condition at the Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center, and is not expected to survive, deputies wrote. All over $36 worth of beer.
[Screengrab via Polk County Sheriff’s Office]