BEECH GROVE, Ind. -- When a man shot himself following an incident at Walmart in Beech Grove, it was the last straw for that town’s mayor. He’s declared the business a public nuisance.
On Thursday morning, 42-year-old Gillace Monroe Samples tried to steal from the store, police said. After being caught by security, Samples waved his gun at employees before running to a nearby restaurant and shooting himself in the head as police closed in.
He was in critical condition at Eskenazi Hospital as of Friday afternoon.
The shooting is the latest in a string of high-profile incidents that have been connected to the troubled Walmart store over the last two months, joining a brawl between two women in the store’s shampoo aisle and a separate act of shoplifting that ended with a crash that killed a 63-year-old woman.
As a public nuisance, Walmart can be assessed fines when officers are needed there.
To Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley, it’s one of the only remaining options.
“We’re better than that, our community is better than that and I don’t want to get a phone call every day saying that somebody pulled a gun at Walmart and has done something out of line,” Buckley said.
Police said Thursday’s incident began around 11 a.m. Samples and another suspect, 42-year-old Johnny Maxey, were caught shoplifting.
Two Walmart employees — one an off-duty Marion County Sheriff's Department deputy working as a security guard and another assisting him — escorted the suspects to the store’s loss prevention office.
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