The customer who shot and killed a robber at an East Ridge convenience store on June 30 said the robber threw a cigarette rack at him and also threatened to kill a female clerk.
Charles Russell also said that he fired when Anthony Edmonds reached for something. He said he thought he was going for a gun.
East Ridge Police said Edmonds was armed with a meat cleaver that he wielded while chasing the clerk around the Marathon Fuel Station on Ringgold Road.
No charges were brought against the customer.
In the incident at 1:47 a.m., officers responded to 4011 Ringgold Road after being told that a black male entered the store, carried out a robbery, ran to the parking lot and was shot.
Officers found Edmonds lying on his back on the parking lot unresponsive. He was transported to Parkridge East Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police found Charles Russell standing near the body of Edmonds and he claimed to be the shooter.
He said after he arrived at the store he saw a man forcing the store clerk out the front door of the business, while stating that he had a gun and would kill her.
The customer said he then retrieved his handgun from his vehicle. As he was turning from his vehicle, he said he was assaulted by the robber, who struck him with a Newport cigarette rack he had taken from the store.
He said it was then that the robber stepped back and began reaching for something. He then fired at the robber, who fell a few steps from where he was shot.
The clerk, who said she had never seen the robber before, said he pulled down a mask after entering the store. He then began chasing her around the store.
She said he caught her and pulled out the meat cleaver.
He then forced her behind the counter and made her turn over money from the cash register to him. He then began forcing her out of the store.