Walmart employees praised after man threatens ‘petrified’ mother and child
By Lydia Blackstone
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STATESBORO, Georgia (WJCL) — Statesboro police praised Walmart employees for helping contain a suspect after officers said a man broke into a display case, stole a BB gun and threatened a mother and her young child around noon Tuesday at the Walmart on Northside Drive.
Police said the suspect entered the store, broke display glass and grabbed a BB gun, then allegedly used it to threaten a woman and her child.
The suspect, identified as Nathaniel Anthony Jones, 40, had been released less than 24 hours earlier from Georgia Department of Corrections custody in Columbus, where he was serving time for burglary, police said.
“I believe he was to be bussed not directly here, but potentially to Savannah. And this is coming through family members that had an expectation of him actually coming home and arriving in Savannah, and then picking him up. And they went and he never showed up,” said Capt. Jared Akins of the Statesboro Police Department.
Officers said Jones used a sledgehammer to break a display case before approaching a mother and what police described as a “very young child.”
“She doesn’t know if it’s an actual firearm, if it’s an air rifle. So she’s petrified,” Akins said. “Obviously, she does the best she can to get both she and her child out of that situation, which she does.”
Police said the incident happened during a relatively quiet time of day and that Walmart employees quickly helped contain the situation until officers arrived. Akins said officers’ response time was about two minutes. The store was closed for about an hour while employees reset the area, police said.
Jones is charged with aggravated assault and second-degree burglary, police said.
“We don’t have any expectation of him having any sort of bond situation come up, because there is still a period of time that he’s under the supervision of Department of Corrections,” Akins said.
The woman and child were not injured, police said, but Akins said the family was shaken.
“Obviously, she’s shook up. You know, her husband came up here — he’s certainly shaken up by that,” Akins said. “And I would expect if it were my wife, I would certainly expect her to be that way and me to be that way too if my kids were involved with that.”
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