Ormond man arrested after allegedly threatening Walmart employee with knife

Shawn Coltharp, 26, had encountered the store's loss prevention officer in the past, police report.


File photo by Paige Wilson
File photo by Paige Wilson
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Ormond Beach Police arrested a 26-year-old man on Tuesday, March 12, who had allegedly threatened a Walmart loss prevention officer with a knife while shoplifting over $100 in merchandise the day before.

Shawn Coltharp, which police reports show has addresses in Ormond Beach and Pierson, was seen by the loss prevention officer removing items including a flashlight, sunglasses and a mounted cell phone holder from their packaging and hiding them in his pants' pockets. Police report the loss prevention officers confronted him near the general merchandise exit and asked him to follow them into the office to wait for law enforcement. The loss prevention officers told police that Coltharp retrieved a collapsible knife from his pocket, opened the blade and refused to follow them. He then dropped all the stolen merchandise and fled the store, police report — the flashlight would have to be recovered from a storm drain gate. 

The loss prevention officers picked Coltharp's photo out of a line-up, and officers conducted an investigative traffic stop on Coltharp's vehicle after spotting it. According to the police report, after he was detained, Coltharp asked, "is this about the incident at Walmart yesterday?"

Coltharp told police that he was "drunk as s--- yesterday" at Walmart, and that he had seen the same loss prevention officer that he "got in trouble with last time," the report states. Coltharp said he removed a pocket knife from his pants pocket to dispel suspicions that it was stolen, and that he unfolded it to show the brand name. 

"I might've stolen some stupid s---, but the knife thing...the knife, he asked me what was in my pocket," Coltharp told police, according to the report.

Police report that the security footage shows Coltharp retrieving an object from his pocket, and draws his right hand back to his shoulder, "displaying the object in what appears to be a rude or threatening manner." The loss prevention officer stepped back and put his hands up, the report states. 

Coltharp was charged with petit theft, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and fleeing and attempting to elude. He was taken to jail.

 

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