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A Utah Man Attacked A Starbucks Barista — And Then Another Customer Shot Him, According To Police
Barista Shelby Hamilton said she thought she was going to die while Benjamin Overall allegedly assaulted her — but then an armed patron shot him and stopped his rampage.
A Utah man who was shot by another customer for assaulting an on-duty Starbucks barista was arrested and charged following the turbulent ordeal, according to multiple reports.
Authorities say the fracas unfolded on the morning of Oct. 4, when Benjamin Scott Overall, 37, entered a Millcreek 7-Eleven and pulled an alarm, KJZZ-TV in Salt Lake City reports.
When an officer approached Overall, he allegedly fled to a nearby Starbucks where he is said to have punched a barista and hit her in the head with a metal basket, the Salt Lake City Tribune reports.
The barista, 24-year-old Shelby Hamilton, told the Deseret News that she thought she was going to die.
“He just came in the door and … hit me in the back of the head from behind," she said.
Following the assault, Overall allegedly approached a patron — who happened to be armed —in a threatening manner, resulting in Overall getting shot, KTSU-Fox 13, the broadcaster’s local affiliate in Salt Lake City, reports.
“[The patron] witnessed the assault against the clerk," Ken Hansen, a detective with the Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake, told Fox News. "And his response, because apparently after the assault the guy came after him, and so he shot the man in the chest."
Overall was transported to a hospital in critical condition after being shot, but was upgraded to stable condition by Thursday, KTSU reports.
He has been charged with aggravated assault and criminal trespassing, according to KTSU.
The patron who shot him, however, has not been identified or charged. He is in his sixties and a licensed gun-owner, according to Fox News.
It is not clear when he will be well enough to make a court appearance.
Overall seems to have a habit of causing a scene: Earlier this year, the suspect was convicted of intoxication after he drunkenly tried to enter hotel room that he did not book, according to an affidavit viewed by KSL-TV in Salt Lake City.
[Photo: Salt Lake County Jail]
