McComb police say a video widely circulated across social media that shows a man being shot in a convenience store parking lot on Friday night leaves out context and paints an inaccurate picture of what took place.
Aggbani News, an Indian website, posted a blurry mobile phone recording of some of the surveillance video from VK Quick Mart at 610 W. Presley Blvd. on Facebook Tuesday afternoon. It is unclear how the site acquired the video.
That video appears to show Akshpret Punjab Singh, 23, of Summit, who went by AK Punjab, being attacked by Ronald Keith Cooper, 42, of McComb, before Singh is shot.
The video appears to show Singh getting shot while running away from Cooper.
But police said the video shows some, but not all, of the available camera angles and excludes important details visible in a recording that was made available to police. Police invited the Enterprise-Journal to view the surveillance video in its entirety Wednesday morning.
Cooper hadn’t been charged in the case as of Wednesday afternoon. District Attorney Dee Bates said earlier this week that the case would be presented to a grand jury regardless of whether charges are filed.
Police say Cooper was shopping at VK Quick Mart on West Presley Boulevard when Punjab, whose family owns other convenience stores in town, entered the market and confronted him just before 10 p.m.
Police said Cooper and Punjab wrestled in the parking lot and Punjab produced a Ruger .357 Magnum revolver loaded with .38 Special ammunition. The men fought over the gun and Punjab was wounded in the altercation. He died at the scene.
A candlelight vigil will be held 6:30 p.m. Friday at Punjab’s Summit Street store.
People who watched the video on Facebook Tuesday questioned how an altercation of that nature could result in an apparent lack of charges.
McComb Police Chief Damian Gatlin said he stands by the work of detectives and believes they made the right decision by holding off on pressing charges.
“He (Cooper) is no threat to society,” Gatlin said. “He was no threat then.”
Gatlin said Cooper entered Punjab’s store at 1210 Nelson Ave. shortly before the confrontation and attempted to buy beer. He complained to the cashier that the beer wasn’t cold and said he would take his business elsewhere.
Surveillance video from VK Quick Mart shows Cooper arriving and entering the store, greeting the cashier and grabbing a glass bottle of beer. As he approaches the register to pay, Cooper is seen speaking cordially to another customer in a striped shirt.
Surveillance footage from outside the store shows Punjab pulling up in a dark-colored Toyota SUV and entering the store. Punjab approached Cooper, who extended his hand to Punjab, who ignored the gesture and stepped close to Cooper and exchanged words.
After a brief moment of conversation Punjab apparently asked Cooper to follow him outside, where a verbal confrontation ensued next to a gray Jeep parked in front of the door of the store.
Punjab once again stepped close to Cooper and bent down for a moment before taking hold of Cooper’s arm and leading him toward a car parked at a gas pump next to the street.
Police said Punjab took the bottle of beer from Cooper’s hand, bent down to the ground and smashed it, producing a jagged bottleneck.
Cooper did not retaliate. The men are obscured from the waist down in that segment of the video, as they are standing next to a car between them and the surveillance camera.
Punjab pulled Cooper near a gas pump next to the road with Cooper’s broken beer bottle in his right hand. At the gas pump next to the road, Punjab put the broken bottle to Cooper’s neck as part of an obvious physical and verbal confrontation. A bystander attempted to calm Punjab down and to separate the pair.
Gatlin said that was enough to reasonably put anyone in fear for their life but Cooper still did not retaliate.
The video then shows Punjab striking Cooper with several blows to the upper body and Cooper again did not retaliate.
After another moment of wrestling, the video shows Punjab producing a holstered revolver, opening the leather clasp with his teeth and putting the weapon to Cooper’s head.
Cooper begins to fight back at that point, wrestling with Punjab over the firearm.
“Cooper began to struggle for his life,” Gatlin said.
The pair wrestled around the parking lot over the revolver. Punjab gained the upper hand at one point, slamming Cooper head-first into the back of a pickup truck parked at a gas pump.
In that moment, Cooper appeared to gain control of the firearm and the video shows him firing several shots. After Punjab fell, Cooper hit him with the revolver.
Investigators said they have not determined with certainty the number of gunshot wounds Punjab sustained pending autopsy results. Gatlin said Punjab was shot at close range, indicated by powder burns to his lower abdomen.
Police said witnesses told them Punjab acted as the aggressor throughout the entirety of the confrontation. They said it was not until Punjab placed the revolver to Cooper’s head that Cooper retaliated. Video evidence appears to confirm that assertion.
Police are still investigating the motive behind the confrontation. While Cooper reportedly shared words with the cashier at Punjab’s Nelson Street convenience store, that incident may not be connected to the altercation on West Presley Boulevard, police said.
They said it’s also unclear whether Punjab drove to the VK Quick Mart specifically to confront Cooper or if he noticed Cooper and decided to stop.
