Gas station security guard kills man he accused of stealing a beer, Kentucky cops say

A security guard has been charged with murder in the killing of a man at a Thorntons gas station, Kentucky cops say.

The incident happened around 10 p.m. on Sunday, June 12, in downtown Louisville. Officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department found the victim with a gunshot wound in the gas station parking lot, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The security guard, 31-year-old Tavon Anthony Parrish, said the victim came to the store as a customer, but the guard suspected him of stealing a can of beer, according to a citation. Parrish confronted the customer and “presented his handgun.”

As a verbal altercation between the two intensified, Parrish shot the victim because he said “he believed he wanted to fight him,” according to police.

Officers reviewed surveillance footage and interviewed witnesses before charging Parrish with murder. The victim’s name has not been publicly released.

Parrish, of Jeffersonville, Indiana, remains in Louisville Metro Corrections as of Monday, June 13, jail records show. He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.