These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version.
Mike Straub was at work at Marco’s Pizza, two doors down from the Game X Change in Louisville’s Valley Station, when he and his coworkers noticed some men dressed for the wrong season. It was late on a Saturday morning.
“That was the oddest thing,” Straub said. “They were an all black zip ups with black hoodies. It looked like they were just ready for winter and 95 degrees outside.”
They had their hoods up, heads down, glasses and face masks on, and they were in a half run around the corner toward the game store. “Next thing we knew were gunshots and the cops are showing up,” Straub said.
Inside, according to the store’s manager, it had gone like this:
We had two guys come in here both with guns trying to rob two of our employees that were up here [the counter], attempted to get into the safe.
A customer who was walking by came in, saw what was happening, and shot both of them.
Neither employee was hurt. One of the robbers, 25-year-old Ronny Walker Jr., died before he could be taken to the hospital. The other went there with wounds he was expected to survive.
“I almost lost a friend today,” the manager said that day.
It wasn’t the store’s first time. The manager said it had been robbed three times in a year and a half. The previous October, a man walked in, told an employee he was armed, and “demanded business cash.” The writing on the door banned guns, hoods and gloves inside the store.
A manager at another nearby business, who wouldn’t go on camera for fear of losing his job, said Encore Vapes & Smokes, in the same strip, had been hit three times, too. He blamed a lack of police presence.
“It’s scary. I mean, it makes you not want to come back to work the next day, honestly. What can you do? Just hope that our boys in blue are going to take care of us,” Straub said.
Yes, we respect the police and want them to control crime — and they did show up. But a customer got there first.
Sources
News
25-year-old killed in double shooting inside Dixie Highway Game X Change identified (WAVE)
WDRB ran two articles and a video. The original links no longer resolve; these are archived copies.
1 person killed in shooting inside Dixie Highway business, Louisville police say (Day of)
Nearby businesses, employees react to Saturday’s fatal shooting on Dixie Highway (Video)
25-year-old man identified as victim of fatal shooting in attempted robbery of Louisville business (Identification)
Louisville police searching for man accused of robbing gaming store (WHAS11, the October 2023 robbery; archived copy)
2A / specialist media
Game X Change Robbery Fail: 2 Robbers Shot, 1 Fatally (Concealed Nation; Brandon Curtis)