Crime & Safety

Angry Man Threatens to Open Fire on Convenience Store Over 22-Cent Soda Tax: Police

The tax on his 2-liter Pepsi bottle set him off. This "is my neighborhood, I'm tax exempt!" the man proclaimed.

CHICAGO — Angry about the 22-cent tax on his bottle of Pepsi, a Chicago man brandished a submachine gun, proclaimed himself "tax exempt" and threatened to kill everyone in the convenience store.

Nahshon Shelton, 36, who pulled a loaded firearm from his Gucci satchel, later would tell police he had to "keep it real" and "put them in their place" for trying to make him pay a 22-cent tax on his $1.79, 2-liter bottle of Pepsi Cola, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

Police responded to a man-with-a-gun call Saturday at about 1:45 p.m., in the 4000 block of West Madison Street, and saw Shelton yelling at customers and clerks inside the store.

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"I’m going to shoot you in the head three times," Shelton told one, reports the Sun-Times. To another, he said: "I'm going to smoke your ass."

This "is my neighborhood, I’m tax exempt!" he told the cops who took him into custody. Police said he had two loaded magazines. Shelton was charged with aggravated assault, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and possession of an invalid firearm owners ID card, and was held without bail on Sunday.

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This episode ended without a shot being fired, but at least 36 people in the city of Chicago were reported shot — four fatally — over the weekend in this spring's first surge in gun violence.

Clarification: This article was revised to address questions raised about the weapon and add information about the ammunition in the accused's possession.


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