An IU student is in jail after he allegedly threw a cement block through the front window of a Bloomington gun shop, possibly in the pursuit of a cheap handgun.
Lucas Fitts, a 19-year-old sophomore, is charged with felony attempted burglary. He confessed to police and was arrested Tuesday morning, several hours after the incident, Bloomington Police Capt. Steve Kellams said.
Police responded at about 10:45 p.m. to the Four Seasons Gun Shop at 1412 S. Monon Dr. About 15 minutes before that, the owner had been alerted that his store’s alarm was going off. Security footage showed a young man with gloves trying to enter the store through the locked front door, then going around the back side of the store. In the video, the man returns to the front of the store, throws a cement block through the store’s front window and flees.
The store owner told police the man in the video appeared to be a man who had gone into the store earlier in the day and looked at a 9-mm handgun manufactured by Llama Firearms. He then told the clerk he couldn’t buy the gun because he was 19 years old, and state law prohibits handgun sales to people younger than 21.
Kellams said the gun the man asked about was fairly cheap, not an expensive or esoteric firearm.
“If this were the 1970s, we would call it a Saturday night special,” he said.
Kellams said the owner also gave police information about a man who had called the store asking about the same gun and they traced the number to Fitts. Police found Fitts in his dorm room and brought him into the police station for questioning.
During the interview, he confessed to trying to break into the store and told police he was angry because he couldn’t buy a gun at 19 even though he had a permit. He was arrested and taken to Monroe County Correctional Center. Police executed a search warrant on Fitts’ dorm room and found the clothes he appeared to be wearing in the security video, Kellams said. No firearms were found in the search.
