The gunman who was detained by an off-duty firefighter until police arrived at a Springfield, Missouri Walmart on Thursday has been identified as Dmitriy N. Andreychenko, 20, and was charged with making a terrorist threat in the second degree.
According to the Greene County Prosecutor’s office, the suspect showed up at the store armed with tactical weapons and more than one hundred rounds of ammunition. Witnesses and police say he walked around the store filming himself before a manager pulled the fire alarm, urging shoppers to leave.
An off-duty fireman with a concealed carry permit held Andreychenko at gunpoint until police officers arrived at the scene to arrest him. According to a probable cause document, he “wanted to know if Walmart honored the Second Amendment.”
“Missouri protects the right of people to open carry a firearm, but that right does not allow an individual to act in a reckless and criminal manner endangering other citizens,” Greene County prosecutor Dan Patterson said in a statement. “As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously explained, ‘the most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater causing a panic.’”
“His intent was not to cause peace or comfort to anybody that was in the business. In fact, he’s lucky to be alive to be honest,” said Lt. Mike Lucas of the Springfield Police Department.
The charge Andreychenko faces is a class E felony and is punishable by up to four years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
