Angry Customer Allegedly Pulls Submachine Gun Over Pepsi Sales Tax

A Chicago man pulled out a.22 caliber submachine gun instead of some spare change when he became angry about having to pay the 22-cent sales tax on a $1.79, two-liter bottle of Pepsi according to law enforcement authorities.

The incident in which the customer allegedly gave convenience store employees a hard time over a $2.01 soft drink purchase occurred Saturday afternoon.

The suspect, identified in multiple media accounts as Nahshon X. Shelton, 36, reportedly told the store clerk that he was “tax exempt” because this was his neighborhood.

Shelton allegedly returned to the store that day, pulled the loaded weapon described as a blue-steel Intratec from a Gucci bag, and began waiving it around, threatening to kill everyone in the store.

To one store worker, he allegedly threatened that “I’m going to shoot you in the head three times.” To another, he reportedly said “I’m going to smoke your ass.” The potentially lethal form of tax protesting — if that’s what it was — was filmed on surveillance video; see embed below. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the encounter.

The suspect later told responding cops that he was trying to “keep it real.”

Police arrested the suspect and charged him with aggravated assault, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and having an invalid firearm owner’s identification card. He was being held without bail at the time of the court arraignment.

A follow-up news report indicates that the weapon in question was a semi-automatic handgun instead.

According to the prosecutor, the gun allegedly brandished in the convenience store about the Pepsi sales tax dispute “had eight live rounds in one magazine, five live rounds in another, and one in the chamber.”

[image credit: Hakan Dahlstrom]