A male entered a 7-Eleven in Oklahoma City just before midnight Thursday and tried to buy burritos, beef sticks, and ice cream with a counterfeit $100 bill, according to a KOKH-TV news video.
But the female clerk wasn’t buying the con.
‘You have the right to defend yourself.’
What’s more, the clerk said she was calling police, KWTV-DT reported — and she refused the male’s demand that she give him back the counterfeit bill, Gary Knight of the Oklahoma City Police Department added to the station.
Then the thug reportedly got violent.
“He came around the counter, got behind the counter where she was, and grabbed her by the throat and began choking her violently,” Knight added to KWTV.
The clerk — 25-year-old Stephanie Dilyard — told KOKH-TV that “he threatened me, said he was gonna slice my head off, and then that’s when I tried to call the police. I realized he started throwing things at me, came behind the counter. I tried to run off, but he grabbed his hands around my neck, and pushed me out of the counter space.”
Knight added to KWTV that “at some point during this altercation, she pulled out a pistol and shot him.” Police said the suspect — who also was carrying a knife — was shot in the stomach and that the entire attack was caught on video, the station noted.
The suspect — identified as 59-year-old Kenneth Thompson — fled the store and called 911, KOKH reported.
“Reporting he had been shot,” Knight told KWTV. “Although he was not forthcoming with what happened when officers first met with him.”
Thompson was arrested at the hospital and charged with assault and battery, threatening acts of violence, attempting to pass a fake bill, and a felony warrant for violating parole, KOKH said.
KWTV noted that he’ll be transferred to the Oklahoma County Detention Center once he’s released from the hospital.
As for Dilyard, police told KWTV that she suffered minor injuries and was not arrested; police confirmed to KOKH, in fact, that she’s protected under Oklahoma’s self-defense law.
Yet after all that, 7-Eleven fired Dilyard on Monday for using her gun, KOKH said.
“They said that they were going to separate from employment because of a violation of policy,” she added to the station, noting that she had been working alone from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. for more than two years.
KOKH said attempts to reach 7-Eleven for a statement on Dilyard’s firing and any changes to employee policy were unsuccessful. KWTV said a 7-Eleven clerk stated to the station that employees are not allowed to carry firearms at work. KWTV added that 7-Eleven hasn’t responded to its question about whether security will be provided following this attack.
Dilyard told KOKH that she’ll always choose to preserve her life over preserving her job.
“This was a situation where I felt like I was put in a corner between choosing between my job and my life, and I’m always going to choose my life because there’s people that depend on me,” she told the station. “Just, I’m going home, you know. That’s my goal. I need to be here for my kids.”
Dilyard added to KOKH that she hopes her ordeal will be a wake-up call to prevent other clerks, especially women, from being harmed: “If I’d known that, you know, there’s a potential where somebody could be for real in taking my life away that I will do whatever it takes … I hope that … women see that, and you know, they’ll do the same thing. You have the right to defend yourself.”
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Crime, 2nd amend., Guns, Gun rights, 7-eleven, Self-defense, Physical attack, Oklahoma city, Arrest, Fired, Shooting
