The owner of a store in Washington sentenced to 8 years in prison for killing thief

News24xx.com - 30-year-old Min Sik Kim of Spanaway, Washington, shot 21-year-old man,named Jakeel Rashon Mason in the back as he was trying to flee their store after trying to take cigarettes.

It all started a few weeks before the shooting when Min Sik Kim’s wife was attacked by an armed robber in their store, and she fought back and brought out her own gun to defend herself.

She got shot in the abdomen but survived.

Eight months after opening their store, they already had a few problems with robbers and delinquents.

On the day of the shooting, Kim claimed to have stepped out of the store for a while, to tell a few men loitering outside his store to go away. He then noticed a man entering his store, trying to steal cigarettes from behind the counter. Surveillance video shows Kim pulling out a gun as he walked back in.

In the surveillance videos, Kim  tucking the gun into his waistband and punching Mason in the face, who tried to get away. Yet before going out, Mason grabbed a few cigarettes from the counter. That was when Kim shot him at the back, leading to his immediate death.

Kim said before his arrest he had feared for his life and claimed Mason had pushed him to the ground and tried to grab his pistol.

‘It was going to be either me or him and I don’t want to leave my family behind,’ Kim said.

However, investigators say that wasn’t in the video recorded inside the store.

‘The struggle that we see on the video is the store clerk punching the suspect and when the suspect goes to leave the store, we have video of the store clerk firing rounds at him,’ Detective Ed Troyer said.

During sentencing, he was heard stating, “I’m here to take responsibility for my actions in taking Mason’s life. I accept the consequences. I did not have the right to take his life.”

Kim subsequently pled guilty to second-degree murder.