(Ft. Worth, Texas) – Police in Texas are crediting an armed store clerk for saving a young mother and her two children from an armed suspect.
The situation began as a carjacking attempt at a gas station in the 3900 block of E. Lancaster Ave. That’s where police say 28-year-old Courtney Johnson approached Joanna Avalos and demanded the keys to her vehicle, a vehicle that contained her two young children.
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Avalos told Fox 4 that:
“He pulled out the gun and said, ‘Get out of your car! I’m taking your car!’”
Joanna had her 11-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son in the black Tahoe with her.
Her son, Edwin, saw the man pull the gun.
“It was like a cowboy gun with the spinning wheel,” the young boy said. “A revolver.”
While Johnson fumbled with the keys, Avalos was able to get her children out of the vehicle and run inside the store.
Johnson pursued Avalos and her children towards the store, only to be confronted by an armed shopkeeper. Investigators report that when Johnson fired his gun at the clerk, the clerk immediately returned fire and struck Johnson multiple times.
After being shot twice, Johnson fled the scene in the stolen SUV, crashing it a short time later after a vehicle pursuit with responding officers.
Avalos and her children were rattled, but otherwise unharmed during the incident.
Johnson was arrested and taken to the hospital.
The store clerk is not facing charges at this time, Texas is a Stand–Your–Ground law state.