Valdosta Shopper Draws on Man Beating Girlfriend and Her Teen Daughter in Dollar General, Fires Once When Attacker Charges Him

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VALDOSTA, GA — A 28-year-old man shopping inside a Dollar General on Bemiss Road drew his firearm on a man who was beating a woman in the head Thursday afternoon, then fired once when the attacker turned and charged him, according to the Valdosta Police Department.

Police say the woman was the attacker’s girlfriend, and she was in the store with her teenage daughter when the beating started, as reported by WCTV. The call came in around 4:50 p.m. from the 2100 block of Bemiss Road.

A citizen dialed 911 to report a man hitting a woman inside the store. VPD officers and detectives were already en route when the caller told the dispatcher that someone had been shot.

Officers found the 28-year-old in the parking lot and detained him without incident. Inside, they found Tevin Jay Love, 32, with a gunshot wound to the torso. Another person was holding him down. Officers gave Love first aid before he was taken to the hospital, where police say he is in stable condition.

Officers then located the woman, who told them Love had assaulted her. She was taken to the hospital, treated, and released.

Detectives laid out the sequence from there. Love walked into the store and began striking his girlfriend in the head, police say. Her teenage daughter tried to stop him. He hit the teen too.

That is when the 28-year-old, who police say was shopping in the store, drew his firearm and moved to stop the assault. The woman got away from Love. The shopper tried to hold Love at gunpoint. Love charged him. Love started hitting him. The shopper fired one round and struck Love.

A drawn gun did not stop Love. He went straight through it and started throwing punches at an armed man. The shopper had already been watching a woman take blows to the head and a teenager get hit for trying to stop it, so the danger to others in that store was never in question. Once Love charged him, the fight became the shopper’s own, and any remaining argument about whether he faced a serious threat went away with it.

Stepping in for a stranger is the hardest call an armed citizen makes. You are walking into a fight you did not see start, with no idea whether the attacker is armed or whether someone else is about to come in behind you. This shopper saw a beating, committed to stopping it, and still held fire until the attacker came at him. The gear was secondary. The mindset to recognize an assault for what it was, act on it, and keep the gun as a last resort rather than a first one is the whole story.

“This citizen observed a female getting viciously beaten by the offender, and he took action to stop the physical assault against her, even putting his life in danger,” Chief Leslie Manahan said in the release. “Because of his quick actions, the assault against the female stopped, preventing her from receiving more violent injuries.”

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Detectives obtained arrest warrants on Love for terroristic threat, a felony, aggravated assault, a felony, simple battery, a misdemeanor, and simple assault, a misdemeanor. Those charges are allegations, and Love is presumed innocent unless convicted.

Police have not identified the shopper. He was detained in the parking lot, the chief has publicly credited him with stopping the assault, and no charging decision regarding him has been announced.

Read the original story: Valdosta Shopper Draws on Man Beating Girlfriend and Her Teen Daughter in Dollar General, Fires Once When Attacker Charges Him