Man charged with harassment after incident at local store
Published 11:00 pm Friday, November 30, 2012
A Goshen man was charged Friday with harassment and menacing after an incident in a local store.
Benjamin Lavon Davis, 49, turned himself in to the Troy Police Department Friday, nearly 24 hours after the incident took place in Lowe’s. He was released on $1,200 bond. According to reports, Davis touched a woman inappropriately while she was shopping at Lowe’s and then pulled a gun on her husband who tried to stop Davis from leaving the parking lot.
The woman reported she maneuvered around Davis as he was shopping on one end of an aisle. She went to the other end of the aisle and as she was looking for items she needed, she felt someone pressing against her from behind, pushing her into the shelving and moaning.
“My first reaction was that when I turned around I was going to see someone I knew, that it was a joke,” the woman said. “But there was a man I didn’t recognize literally four inches from my face.”
The woman said she began yelling at the man.
“I don’t think that was what he expected,” she said. “But then he went on about his business.”
The suspect reportedly continued to shop and then move to the checkout line. The woman had already called her husband and he, in turn, called the police. She reported the incident to the store’s management. “I followed him. I didn’t go all the way outside, but I was able to get his tag number,” she said. The woman said her husband arrived at the parking lot as Davis was driving away and tried to stop Davis. That is when Davis pulled a gun, which resulted in the menacing charge.
“I was in shock,” the woman said of the incident. “I could not believe I was standing in a store full of people, in broad daylight, at 1:20 in the afternoon and this was happening. It was very, very strange.”
“I have never had somebody put their hands on me to make me feel violated and frightened,” she said. “It is a whole different ballgame when you are the victim.”
The woman involved in this incident said she encourages parents to talk to their daughters about dangers like this one and give them courage to speak up if it happens.
“Call the police. Press charges. Don’t let anyone who violates you get away with it,” she said.