On Sept. 17, a customer at the Safford Walmart alluded to returning to the store with his AK-47. On Aug. 3, a man killed 22 people and injured 24 others at a Texas Walmart with a similar weapon.
By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – A customer at Walmart upset with a cellular phone issue reportedly threatened he was “going to come back to the store with an AK-47”.
The unknown man had gone to the store on Tuesday, Sept. 17, and requested assistance setting up his cell phone from a cell phone salesman in the electronics department. The salesman told a Safford officer that the man was initially polite but after being told he would have to visit the Verizon Wireless store for the help he needed the customer became irate, according to a Safford Police report.
The customer then allegedly told the salesman that he was going to go home and retrieve his AK-47. The man then laughed and said it was just a joke. An AK-47 (Avtomat Kalashnikova AKA Kalashnikov) is an assault rifle that was developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is the most popular and widely used assault rifle in the world.
The officer reviewed surveillance footage but did not recognize the customer. Walmart requested that if he was located to trespass him from the store.
On Aug. 3, Patrick Wood Crusius, 21, of Allen, Texas, entered a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas, with a WASR-10 rifle, which is a semi-automatic civilian version of an AK-47, and began shooting. Crusius killed 22 people and injured 24 others. His case is still being adjudicated but he was indicted on capital murder charges on Sept. 12. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.