The Roaring Spring community is still stunned, twenty four hours after a man pointed a gun towards a local police officer and was shot by that officer in the True Value parking lot.
On Saturday, State Police identified the man as 49-year-old Todd Mesner from Three Springs, Huntingdon County.
They say he was shot and killed by a local officer at the Roaring Spring True Value parking lot, after pulling out a gun.
The police officer was sent to Dollar General shortly after four o’ clock Friday, following several calls about a man approaching people at the store, acting strangely.
People who live in an apartment complex across the street from True Value say they were shocked to hear gun shots.
“I got off work, I came out here, I always come out here at the picnic table and we heard seven gunshots, and I’m like, “Is that gunshots?” Donald Dean from Roaring Spring, said. “That’s unusual for this area.”
“I was at work yesterday and my girlfriend called me and she was a little worried and she said that they heard a gunshot,” Danny Sell, from Roaring Spring, said. “Her friend came up and told her about it and someone was shot and killed. I was worried about it because I have four kids where I live here.”
Donald Dean from Roaring Spring drove by True Value and saw Mesner.
“We seen activities down there and we seen that person laying in the parking lot that got shot,” Dean, said.
Donald and Danny Sell say they’re glad it wasn’t worse.
“We’re glad the man didn’t shoot or harm anyone else in this area,” Dean said.
“There’s never anything, all you hear out here is cows, that’s all there is out here,” Sell said. So, something like that, especially in your front yard pretty much, it’s a little nerve racking.”
Sell says this is a reminder of how anything can happen anywhere and how you can never be too prepared.
“You always have to have your kids and your family close to you, keep eye on every one of them and know where they’re at,” Sell, said. “You can’t just let you’re kids run around like we used to when we were kids. Always gotta’ lock you’re car now, you never know what’s going to be taken.”
An autopsy was performed on the man Saturday afternoon at ForensicDx in Windber. The Blair County Coroner on call, says the results may not be released for a month.
