Man Appearing To Load Rifle At Plant City Walmart Alarms Customers

PLANT CITY, FL — Plant City police are asking for the public's help to identify a man who opened a box containing a rifle-style BB gun at the Walmart Supercenter and tried to load it with BB pellets. The sight of the man loading what appeared to be a rifle set off a panic that resulted in the store being evacuated Friday night.

At 8:21 p.m., the Plant City Police Department Communications Center received a 911 call reporting that a man was in the store's garden center loading a rifle.

Officers arrived two minutes later and entered Walmart from several entry points while the store was evacuated by store managers.

Police conducted several searches of the store, but could not find the man with the rifle.

When police reviewed surveillance footage, they saw a Black man wearing a white tank top with a black mask covering his head holding a rifle-style BB gun from the sporting goods section of the store. During a search of the store aisle, police recovered an open package that contained a BB rifle and a package of BB pellets that was torn open and scattered about.

Police believe the man was stealing the BB gun and abandoned it when the store was evacuated.

He left in a silver or white vehicle, possibly a mid-2000s Nissan Sentra, with a Black woman who was wearing a blue bandana and a blue short-sleeved T-shirt with "New York" across the front of the shirt.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Plant City Police Department at 813-757-9200.