Home Depot worker shot to death trying to stop accused shoplifter, California cops say
A 26-year-old Home Depot worker died after he was shot confronting an accused shoplifter in California, police said.
Blake Mohs, a loss prevention worker, confronted a 32-year-old woman at about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 18 at the Home Depot in Pleasanton, police said.
She was accused of stealing an electric tool or charger, CBS News reported. The woman “resisted” and shot Mohs, police said.
She ran to a getaway car where her child was also inside, police said. Authorities said they later found a handgun near an intersection by the store.
Fifteen minutes after the shooting, authorities arrested a suspect and the person accused of driving the car. The child was given to relatives, police said.
While in the back of a deputy’s car, the woman made herself become unresponsive, KABC-TV reported. She was taken to a hospital before being booked into jail, the news outlet reported.
She was also “placed on a mental health hold,” according to CBS News.
She was then charged with murder, robbery, child endangerment and felon in possession of a firearm, police said.
The 31-year-old man accused of driving the getaway car was charged with evading a police officer and driving in the opposite direction of travel, child endangerment, resisting arrest and accessory.
Mohs had plans to get married this summer, and he was a “well-known member of the community,” police said.
“Just because he’s not here right now doesn’t mean that all those lives, all the people that he touched aren’t going to pass that forward. Blake had a short life — only 26 years but he lived it,” his mother, Lorie Mohs, told KABC-TV.
Pleasanton is about 40 miles southeast of San Francisco.
“I am devastated by the loss of Blake Mohs in yesterday’s senseless shooting. Through his service to Tri-Valley organizations, Blake was a model for others. To have a life cut short is heartbreaking and infuriating,” Pleasanton Mayor Karla Brown said.
This story was originally published April 20, 2023 at 7:49 PM with the headline "Home Depot worker shot to death trying to stop accused shoplifter, California cops say."
