News

Police: Man arrested for bringing BB gun to Walmart in Plymouth

Walmart is now giving bonuses to employees who don't call off sick.

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Plymouth Police arrested a man for bringing a BB gun to the Walmart Supercenter Tuesday, according to a police report obtained by Boston 25 News. 
 
A manager at the store on Colony Place called police around midnight to report a man in the parking lot with a gun.

When officers arrived, they said the man was kneeling in the passenger side of his truck with the weapon. They noted the truck was parked five spaces from the main entrance of the garden center.

According to the police report, an officer used his loudspeaker to order the man, later identified as Edward Jones, to drop the weapon and move away from his truck.

The report stated Jones raised his arms in the air and yelled, "It's only a BB gun. It's only a BB gun." Jones then followed an officer's instructions to lay on the ground with his arms out. He was placed in handcuffs and searched.

The report added Jones repeatedly said, "It was only a BB gun." An officer confirmed the weapon was a BB gun.

When an officer asked Jones why he had the BB gun, he said he was thinking about returning it. Jones stated he bought the gun two years ago and was upset it was no longer working. He added he needed to "fix" the gun before driving away with it.

Jones said he arrived at the Walmart two hours earlier to try and cash a bank check, but the banking services were closed.

An officer noted the BB gun looked very similar to a real handgun.

The store's manager on duty told police an unidentified customer and an employee alerted her to a man in the parking lot with a gun.

The manager said she called Walmart's corporate security team, who told her to put the store on lockdown and call Plymouth Police.

The employee who said he spotted the gun told police he was extremely concerned "with everything going on" and he believed Jones "was up to something and thought he was going to do something."

The manger told police the corporate security team said they were dealing with a similar incident in Missouri at the same time.

According to the police report, Jones' license to carry had expired in 2007.

Jones told police he was aware of Saturday's mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas that left 22 people dead and more than two dozen others injured.

>>RELATED: Walmart wrestles with how to respond to active shooters

Police noted in their report, Jones was charged with disturbing the peace – subsequent offense, "due to his admitted disregard for the public's and staff's safety and reaction toward his very deliberate brandishing of what appeared to be a handgun."

Jones was convicted of disturbing the peace in 2008 out of Plymouth District Court.

Kingston Police also came to the scene to confirm Jones wasn't the suspect they were looking for in connection with an earlier armed robbery in their town.

Boston 25 News reached out to Walmart for comment. A company spokesperson declined to comment.