A 54-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with misdemeanor theft after she allegedly stole from the body of a hero security guard who died while protecting shoppers from a gunman.
26-year-old Navy veteran Joe Acker tragically died on October 25 after confronting the shooter at the Boise Towne Square Shopping Mall.
Mary Alyce Scarbrough then stole a gun belt, rings, and other items from Acker’s body, according to the criminal complaint obtained by the Idaho Statesman.
A prosecutor said the items were stolen while police were responding to the shooting incident that took the lives of two people and injured four others.
According to reports, Acker was one of the two victims who were killed when Jacob Bergquist, 27, opened fire at Boise Towne Square.
49-year-old Roberto Padilla Arguelles from Rupert, Idaho, was also shot dead.
Ray Dawn told the Idaho Statesman that Acker risked her own life to save shoppers.
“She was confronting the suspect,” Dawn said. “She was helping people be safe and get out of the way and they shot at her.
“I was told she was helping people and saving them… I know she would have wanted a make everyone else safe. She would have been the first one to go down to confront somebody.”
Dawn described Acker as “one of the strangest, quirkiest individuals I’ve ever known” and said that her partner of almost three decades ‘loved her family’.
“I know that there’s different gender things, but I know that I can say she didn’t care what her family thought of that at all. She knew that she loved them and that they loved her.”
Acker’s grieving sister took to Facebook to pay tribute to the Navy veteran.
“You were always kind and loving,” Shawna Lee Lannigan said. “You always had such an enormous heart of gold.
“…You were and are and always will be a hero. I love you to the ends of this earth and beyond.”
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section and SHARE this story with your friends and family!
Recommended Video For You!
“Police rescues baby from plastic bag in Georgia”