Acquaintance Pulls a Weapon at a Charlottesville Taco Bell at 9 A.M. Sunday, Gets Shot in the Shoulder by the Person Who Was Carrying
Key Takeaways
- A dispute between two acquaintances ended with one person shot in the shoulder at the Taco Bell on 5th Street in Charlottesville around 9 a.m. Sunday.
- Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis said one person pulled a weapon first, and the other drew a firearm and fired.
- The person who fired stayed at the Taco Bell and cooperated with officers after the shooting.
- Kochis said the case preliminarily looks like self-defense, though the commonwealth's attorney will make the final charging decision.
- The wounded person was taken to UVA Health with non-life-threatening injuries and is expected to recover.
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — A dispute between two people who knew each other ended with one of them shot in the shoulder at the Taco Bell on 5th Street Sunday morning, and the Charlottesville Police Department says it is investigating the shooting as self-defense.
The shooting happened around 9 a.m. The person who fired stayed at the restaurant and cooperated with officers, Chief of Police Michael Kochis said Tuesday, as reported by Cville Right Now.
According to Kochis, the two had some type of dispute and confronted each other at the Taco Bell. One person pulled a weapon. The other drew a firearm and fired. The round struck the first person in the shoulder.
“They engaged with each other at the Taco Bell. One person pulled out a weapon. Another person pulled out their own weapon, which was a firearm, and shot the person in the shoulder,” Kochis said. “Thankfully it was non-life-threatening injuries.”
CPD had already announced that the wounded person was taken to UVA Health with non-life-threatening injuries. Kochis did not identify either person or say what the first weapon was.
“We’re working with the commonwealth attorney now to determine appropriate charges,” Kochis said. “But on its face, preliminarily, it does look like self-defense.”
That is the chief describing what his investigators have seen so far, not a legal finding. The commonwealth’s attorney makes the charging decision, and none has been announced.
The sequence is what carries this case as far as it has gone. Police describe one person producing a weapon first, and the other answering it. What police have not described is what the dispute was about or how it got to that point, and that is exactly what a prosecutor will look at. De-escalation and avoidance come first. A disagreement with someone you know, at a fast food counter at nine on a Sunday morning, is the kind of situation that should end with somebody walking out the door before anyone reaches for anything. The mindset that keeps you out of a courtroom is the one that treats leaving as the first option, not the last. But once a weapon comes out, it is a whole different situation. At that point the argument is over and the threat is what matters. From what the chief has described, the shooter may have answered with the correct amount of force: enough to stop the person pulling the weapon, and the wounded person is expected to recover.
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The shooter stayed and talked to police. That put the shooter’s own account in front of investigators from the first minute, before anyone else’s version got there.
The person who was shot is expected to recover. The case is with the commonwealth’s attorney.
Read the original story: Acquaintance Pulls a Weapon at a Charlottesville Taco Bell at 9 A.M. Sunday, Gets Shot in the Shoulder by the Person Who Was Carrying