“It’s a second hand consigment store, so they do have firearms inside the building, so it looks like he used the firearm and ammunition from the store and fired the single round,” said Albany Police Captain Eric Carter.
When police heard the gunshot, they called in the swat team and other local law enforcement and surrounded the area. Jones didn’t come out, so they went in about four-hours later.
“We’ve been in the Albany area since 1989, we’ve not had any problem near this extreme. Obviously this is one of those weird things, obviously a random act, so it’s very weird for this town,” said Gerald Upshaw, manager at Ace Buyers Pawn Shop.
Captain Eric Carter agrees.
“This is kind of out of the ordinary for us to have this type of event, we’ve seen some things like this historically in different types of cases, but i can’t think of another situation where we’ve had a burglary that’s resulted in somebody shooting themselves, in essence,” he said.
Managers say both the incident and the response, especially the tear gas filled retail room, will take some time to clean-up.
“We’re gonna be closed for a few days, looking to open by Thursday. At this point we have hired professional cleanning crews. The good news is things pawn items were minimally effected,” said Upshaw.
As for the suspect, he could face burglary charges, pending his condition.
“We havent really had time to speak with this gentleman, so at this point we’re just in kind of a holding pattern,” said Captain Carter.
Upshaw says the incident is unfortunate for everyone involved.
“Obviously it’s unfortunate and it’s gonna impact a number of people including our customers by not being open until Thursday,” he said.
Albany police are still investigating the shooting. They say Benjamin Jones was moved from Corvallis to a Eugene hospital earlier today.
