HE WAS SUCH A GOOD BOY: Robber suffers a sudden and profound failure in victim selection

Tamon J. Stapleton, aged 18-years, was just turning his life around before heading off to an Ivy League college this coming fall to study quantum physics when he used a handgun with the serial number ground off to rob a Breadbox convenience store in Knoxville.

Unbeknownst to Tamon, the female clerk’s boyfriend was outside the store.

He saw what was going down.   He walked into the store, armed with his own pistola.  The difference between our quantum physicist and the clerk’s boyfriend?  The boyfriend’s 9mm handgun was legally owned and possessed.

The boyfriend walked in and popped a cap in Tamon’s head, leaving him dead right there and saving taxpayers the cost of treating and housing him.

KNOXVILLE (WATE) – A man who attempted to rob an East Knoxville convenience store early Monday morning was shot and killed by a bystander, according to Knoxville Police Department.

Officers responded to the Breadbox located on the 6200 block of Asheville Highway around 2:35 a.m after receiving a call that shots had been fired.

When officials arrived, they found Tamon J. Stapleton, 18, dead with a gunshot wound. Police say Stapleton, armed with a 9mm handgun, had entered the store and was forcing the female clerk behind the counter at gunpoint.

A male friend of the clerk, who was outside the store in his parked vehicle, witnessed the attempted robbery, retrieved his handgun, entered the store and fired one shot, hitting Stapleton.