Lubbock Man Arrested After Trying to Throw Brick at Store Employees

A Lubbock man is still in custody after attempting to leave a store with multiple items and then throwing a brick at employees. The Lubbock police department was dispatched to the 5200 block of 98th Street back on June 12 after a man with a shopping cart of items was pacing back and forth for a little over three hours.

KAMC news reports that during this time is when store employees approached the man and told him he had to pay for the items in the cart of leave. After that initial interaction is when the man, now identified as 33-year-old Austin Lopez, became angry and aggressive towards the employees as he escalated the situation.

Lopez did attempt to push that shopping cart full of items in the direction of those employees in an attempt to ram them. Soon after that interaction Lopez attempted to leave the store with the items as employees attempted to stop him with even threatening to call police. Lopez then escalated the situation to a physical altercation as he tried to grab a phone from an employee who tried calling 911. It was a different employee calling 911 that caused Lopez to pick up a rectangle shaped paver stone and throw it at three employees, missing them and striking a pillar.

Lopez did attempt to leave and while in the parking made a gesture as if he going to pull out a weapon and then fled the scene. Lopez was eventually arrested and charged with Robbery and Aggravated Robbery as well as Interfering with Emergency Request for Assistance and a separate charge of Assault Domestic Violence. As per the publishing of this article Lopez remains in the Lubbock County Detention Center on a combined bond total of $130,000.