If the following scene hadn’t been captured by the police car’s dashcam few people would have believed what happened.
Thankfully, the footage exists and it tells the story of an overzealous citizen who thought it appropriate to take matters into his own hands and shoot at a suspect, despite the fact that a police officer was at the scene. It all started when a policeman from Parma, Ohio saw a young man driving erratically on Chevrolet Boulevard.
The officer started following the suspect, later identified as 22-year-old Shon Burton after he ran a red light and attempted to pull into a parking lot. As the officer approached Burton, a citizen stopped his Jeep Wrangler in front of the suspect’s older Chevrolet Malibu to block him. The situation seemed to diffuse at that point but Burton had something else on his mind: he rammed into the Wrangler that was blocking his way.
He then reversed in an attempt to flee the scene when the darndest thing happened: the citizen started shooting at the suspect’s car leaving the police officer dumbfounded!
After firing four shots that didn’t stop the suspect from driving off, we can hear the policeman telling the wannabe cop: “Dude, stay right there!” According to News 5 Cleveland, the bystander, who had a concealed carry permit, later told the police he feared both for his life and the officer’s life.
As for the suspect, he was arrested later after he crashed his vehicle. Police officers discovered a loaded sawed-off shotgun in the area where the accident happened. Before being spotted by the officer, Burton was involved in a domestic dispute that involved guns. He was charged with felonious assaults and failure to comply with a police order.