A 19-year-old Michigan man walked into a pawn shop in Lake City, FL, asked the sales clerk if he could examine a shotgun, then used the gun to kill himself.
Jacksonville's News 4 TV said that the young man had been in the store the day before, but the clerk would not let him hold the weapon without first seeing an ID. When the customer returned shortly after 10:00 a.m., he was carrying a Michigan driver's license.
The clerk allowed the man to examine the shotgun, but as he took it, the customer took a shotgun shell out of his pocket, loaded the weapon and shot himself in the head.
He was taken to a local hospital where he died of his injuries.
Police spokesperson Officer Craig Strickland told Channel 4 that, prior to shooting himself, the man had acted like any other "normal customer."
When the victim accepted the gun and loaded it, said Strickland, "[The clerk] drew his firearm to point it at him 'cause he didn't know if he was going to point the shotgun at him or exactly what was going to go on. Maybe be thought he was going to get robbed, and he just told him to 'put the gun down, put the gun down.' The next thing he knows, the young man stuck it up underneath his head."
Police are attempting to notify the man's family.
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