Concealed pistol owner: Fired twice after man "rushed him" in convenience store

A shooting happened just inside the doors of the Columbia One Stop convenience store in Holland on Thursday, Feb. 9

HOLLAND, MI -- A man who fired his concealed pistol twice at a man who "rushed him" inside Columbia Avenue One Stop described the harrowing encounter Friday in court.

Christian Newton told how he went to the Holland convenience store late Feb. 9 to buy gummi bears and Fiddle Faddle when he looked through a window and saw a man punching the store clerk.

"It looked like he had her by the throat," Newton said during a probable cause hearing for 30-year-old Tramell Jackson, the man he shot.

Tramell Jackson

Jackson was ordered to stand trial Friday, March 31 on charges of aggravated domestic violence and assault and battery after a judge listened to testimony from Newton and the clerk, 39-year-old Chrisy Martinez.

Jackson was wounded but recovered enough to be booked into jail six days after the shooting.

During testimony, Newton described how he drew his gun even before entering the store, then yelled for the person to stop attacking Martinez.

"He turned and looked at me and then rushed me," Newton said. "When he attempted to grab the weapon is when I actually engaged him."

He fired twice and Jackson fell to the floor.

Newton had a valid concealed pistol license. As police arrived, he set the gun on the floor and followed police commands.

Jackson was the boyfriend of Martinez and she appeared to testify reluctantly Friday. They had been together two years.

She acknowledged that he came into the store and was agitated, then had her up against an ice machine and stack of two-liter pop bottles and punched her.

"It was unwanted contact?" an assistant prosecutor asked.

"I guess if that's what you want to call it," she said.

Prosecutors initially planned to show surveillance video from Columbia Avenue One Stop that showed the attack and shooting, but Martinez said she didn't want to view it.

"I don't want to see him get shot again," she said.

"it wasn't him," she said about Jackson's behavior. "That's not how he is."

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