An off-duty Walmart worker was arrested for fatally shooting a customer in front of his family after the man attempted to stop an altercation between him and a female store employee, officials said per the NY Post.
Florida resident, Tironie Sterling, 22, was taken into custody on Tuesday for the shooting death of 41-year-old Thierry Bastien. The suspect is accused of getting into an altercation with a female employee at a Fort Lauderdale Walmart.
According to investigators, Sterling showed up at the Lauderdale Lakes store at 2 p.m. during his off-hours to meet with his female colleague. The two reportedly got into a verbal argument that led to a fight. Sterling allegedly dropped his handgun onto the floor during the altercation and tried to
“snatch”
the woman’s phone. Arrest reports reveal that Sterling insisted the woman show him text messages on her phone to which she declined. Sterling then allegedly began to push the woman into the shelves.
The victim shouted for help but was not assisted by colleagues or Samaritans walking by, according to the report. That is when good Samaritan, Thierry Bastien, stepped in to help the woman and got into a scuffle with Sterling. During the brawl, investigators said Sterling picked up his gun from the ground and shot Bastien multiple times,
“hitting him in the chest, back, and lower extremities,”
reports reveal.
Family members said Bastien was in the store with his girlfriend and his two children, including an infant at the time.
“I had the baby in my hand,”
Bastien’s girlfriend, told the news station Local 10. She said she witnessed her boyfriend get shot six times.
“I was like ‘no, please, even if it’s for the baby,’ and he stood over him and shot him,”
she recalled.
Sterling fled the scene but was later apprehended at an apartment complex a mile south of the Walmart, according to the outlet. Sterling faces charges of murder
“while engaged in a certain felony offense and robbery by sudden snatching with a firearm or weapon.”
He appeared in court Wednesday and was ordered held without bond.
#Clique, what are your thoughts?
