Very visible stand-off ends without incident
By Donnita Fisher
Managing Editor
After a tense hour and a half Friday evening May 15, a Ben Wheeler man surrendered to Canton Police without incident but not before menacing WalMart employees with a handgun and then threatening to kill himself.
The incident shut down Hwy. 243 between Hwys. 64 and 19 from about 5:30 until 7 p.m.
According to police reports, James Daniel Harlan, 56, was shopping in WalMart when he was observed by the store’s assets protection manager putting items into a black bag. When he exited the store without paying for the items, three store employees confronted him and Harlan pulled the gun from his bag and threatened the employees.
Officer Jon Phillips was the first law enforcement office to arrive on scene. He wrote in his report that when he arrived, he observed Harlan sitting in his vehicle holding a gun to his head. Phillips reported that Harlan said he wanted to die. “I told him ‘not today,’ ’’ Phillips wrote, “and the male told me to kill him.”
More law enforcement arrived and Constable Pat Jordan took over negotiations with Harlan and eventually the incident ended with Harlan’s surrender.
When Harlan’s vehicle, an older molder Ford Mustang, was searched, it was discovered his gun was not loaded. “The magazine was located under the driver seat of the vehicle,” the police report states.
Harlan was booked into the Canton Jail and then transferred to the Van Zandt County Jail on charges of aggravated robbery. His bond has been set at $25,000.
The items he took from WalMart included a wallet, shipping tape, a steel case, two green flasks, two omni scratch pads, duct tape and a pink dog toy.
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