An armed man who caused a “panic” at a Missouri Walmart has been identified as 20-year-old Dmitriy N. Andreychenko, Springfield police said Friday.
He faces a charge of making a terrorist threat in the second degree, the police department said on Twitter. CNN was unable to determine Friday whether Andreychenko was represented by an attorney.
Officers responded to a call of an active shooter at the Walmart Neighborhood Market on Thursday afternoon, Police Lt. Mike Lucas said.
No shots were fired, and no one was injured, police said.
The man was pushing a cart and recording himself walking through the store with a cell phone when the manager pulled the fire alarm to notify customers to escape, according to CNN affiliate KYTV.
“His intent was not to cause peace or comfort to anybody that was in the business,” Lucas said. “In fact, he’s lucky to be alive still to be honest.”
A prosecutor said it’s incumbent that an individual carry a weapon in a responsible manner.
“Missouri protects the right of people to open carry a firearm, but that right does not allow an individual to act in a reckless and criminal manner endangering other citizens,” Greene County Prosecuting Attorney said in a statement Friday. “As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously explained, ‘The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre causing a panic.’”
The man was detained by an armed off-duty fireman until officers arrived and took him into custody, police said in a statement.
“At this time, the investigation is ongoing, and we are working to determine his motives,” the statement said.
Lucas said the recent spate of mass shootings in public places may have placed customers on heightened alert, leading them to call police reporting an active shooter.
“All we know is the fact that he walked in here heavily armed with body armor on, in military fatigues and caused a great amount of panic inside the store. So, he certainly had the capability the potential to harm people,” Lucas said.
“And then obviously what’s happened in Texas and Dayton and all that kind of stuff in the last seven days – that’s on everybody’s mind.”
This article has been updated with revised charges from police.
