Bar Patrons Beat Would-Be Robber to a Pulp With His Own Shotgun

Not only did John Columbus Beane leave penniless after two armed robbery attempts on November 7, his shotgun was reduced to pieces by patrons at a bar he held up who allegedly took the weapon from the would-be robber and clubbed him with it repeatedly.

The Charleston Gazette reports that Beane had first attempted to rob a Pizza place, but after the cashier fled through the back exit the rober was unable to open the register. After that, Beane hit the bar where patrons hit him:

"'I thought maybe he was a weirdo,' Harman said, at first not realizing that Beane was there to rob the place. 'Halloween's over.'

Beane pointed the shotgun at Harman and in a near-whisper told her to hand over whatever was in the cash register. That's when local drifter Steven Thaxton, one of the two patrons in the bar at the time, stepped in.

Thaxton laughed, and according to Harman, said, 'You're not going to try and rob us with a BB gun, are you?''

Thaxton, soon aided by Gary Hall, began struggling with Beane and eventually wrested the weapon away and dragged him outside to the parking lot.

'Him and Steven just started fighting with the gun,' Hall told the Gazette. 'I knew if it went off it was either me or the bartender who gets shot. I didn't have any choice but to help.'

Hall would not comment on what had transpired once the men were in the parking lot, but according to Giggenbach, Thaxton and Hall beat Beane with the shotgun until it broke apart."

The Daily Mail reports that Beane appeared in a West Virginia county courtroom Friday admitting to two charges of first-degree robbery in November, which if running together will put him behind bars for a minimum of 20 years.

If sentenced separately he faces at least 10 years.