MEDFORD, Ore. – Police arrested a man for refusing to cooperate with police after an attempted armed robbery at the north Medford Walmart.
At around noon Thursday, witnesses say a man—later identified as 32-year-old Aaron Michael Brown—tried to walk out of the Walmart on Crater Lake Highway without paying for the strawberries he was carrying. He was reportedly confronted by a greeter, at which point he appeared to pull out a gun. The greeter disengaged and let Brown leave, witnesses said.
The Medford Police Department was alerted to the situation and found Brown in the parking lot near a light pole. That’s where he held steady with what appeared to be a gun, refusing to disarm.
“Him and the cops had a standoff for a good ten or fifteen minutes I’d say, and they were just yelling put the gun down, put the gun down,” said Joshua Potts, a witness.
According to police, Brown eventually threw the weapon to the ground, but he wouldn’t move away from it. This prompted officers to deploy less-than-lethal ammunition in an attempt to make Brown comply with their orders. He was struck in the leg and police were able to bring him into custody.
“it’s a replica hand gun, it looks real, and it’s difficult for us to determine from a distance what’s real and what’s not. And we have to be very cautious with that and we have to make sure that everybody is safe. And that was the whole goal, to get him into custody safely without anybody getting injured,” said Sgt. Geoff Kirkpatrick with Medford Police.
The weapon was later determined to be a replica gun.
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