Fort Worth, Texas — A Craigslist deal that apparently was a robbery in disguise resulted in the fatal shooting of the suspect.
Two men arranged to meet outside a Fort Worth Metro PCS store to complete a transaction for a cell phone which had been advertised on Craigslist. The presumed seller of the phone, according to police, instead tried to rob the other man when they met up.
Unbeknownst to the would-be robber, the buyer had a concealed carry handgun license and was indeed packing heat at the time of the rendezvous. When the seller tried to rob him, the alleged victim pulled out his gun and opened fire. The Craigslist seller, identified in media accounts as Desmond Paige, 20, was shot multiple times in the chest and died at the scene in the store parking lot. Paige reportedly was on a parole after serving a jail sentence for a violent crime. It is not clear at this point whether he also was armed too, but investigating officers have reportedly identified him as the perpetrator of the attempted Craigslist robbery.
The buyer suffered a wrist injury in the scuffle on Tuesday afternoon “although it’s not known if he accidentally shot himself or was shot by Paige.” He was treated at a local hospital for the wound.
Authorities have not announced as yet whether they will pursue any charges against the alleged robbery victim in the Craigslist deal gone wrong.
In a related incident last month, a Dallas Craigslist user was pistol-whipped and robbed after meeting a man who was supposedly selling an iPhone on Craigslist.
Does a criminal incident of this nature give you second thoughts about doing business on Craigslist ? Should this instead be considered merely an isolated incident?
Watch a report on the Craigslist robbery and fatal shooting from the local Fox affiliate: