Good Guy with a Gun #224: Henderson, NV

The Walmart employee mourned Otis Watson because she didn’t know he had waved a gun at someone. We know more now — but only a little. | Original incident: June 12, 2024

These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is essentially the same as the calendar version.

We don’t know why Otis Watson was in that Walmart parking lot in the early afternoon of June 12, 2024.

We don’t know why he had a gun, either, and we don’t know why he was waving it “in a confrontational manner” at the driver of another car.

But knowing that much makes us understand why the driver of that other car fired his own weapon at Watson and then drove away. Watson fired multiple shots at him as he left the area, but not for long — he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Store managers initially thought it was an active shooter situation and locked the area down. Neighbors say the Walmart is in a safe area, and they were surprised by the violence.

People immediately relate to the person who was killed. One Walmart employee said, “It’s beyond words knowing that my family member was standing right there, knowing that that could have been my family member.”

But the people on-scene knew then even less than we do now. To the well-meaning but misguided employee: Your family member (one hopes) would be the guy who escaped in the car, not the one who got shot.

The shooter didn’t drive that far away, apparently, because he cooperated on the scene with Henderson Police. At that time, the police said they were investigating the incident as “possibly being self-defense,” and no arrests were made.

Sources

Primary

Henderson PD posted their press release to the city website.

News sources

The Las Vegas Journal-Review, KSNV 3, and KLAS 8 gave similar write-ups.

KVVU Fox 5 gave multiple takes: Initial shooting, self-defense update, aggressor identification update (video only, below).