Lieutenant Chris Bailey said the armed robbery suspect left the adult store with an undisclosed amount of money as well as merchandise. Bailey said there was a confrontation between the officer and the suspect outside of the store.The responding officer told the suspect to stop and get on the ground; he refused. Then, the officer used his Taser, which knocked the suspect to the ground. After that, Bailey said the suspect tried to get up.
The officer used his Taser again and at that point the suspect pointed his gun at the officer. The officer feared for his life and fired his weapon, Bailey said. The suspect was pronounced dead outside the store.
Police identified the man as 27-year-old Alfred D. Ferrell.
Chief Rick Hite said their officer was at the right place at the right time. He said their officers have been in the area because it was identified as having problems with robberies and burglaries. The name of the officer has not been released.
People who were in the area when the shooting happened said they had never seen so many police officers.
Ron Simmons heard the shooting. His business is located in the plaza next to Keystone Video and Newsstand.
“Within a few seconds, we just heard like two sets of gun shots. (We heard) like a smaller set of gun shots and then a pause and then we heard like 6 consecutive shots like pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,” Simmons recalled.
Alan Urasky works nearby too and he also heard gunshots.
“Being inside you would think you wouldn’t be able to hear something like that, but it was…it was very distinct,” Urasky said.
Wednesday was not the first time Keystone Video and Newsstand was robbed; it was also robbed in August, according to IMPD records. We found out that the clerk who worked Wednesday was also there in 2010 when someone else robbed the store.
