Walmart: Gun lock in Marana case was properly installed

The proper lock was used on a weapon stolen by a man who was later struck by a police car as he walked down a street in Marana firing the weapon once into the air, Walmart officials say.

On Feb. 19, Mario Miranda Valencia was struck by police after he fired a round from a rifle he’d stolen from the Walmart at 8280 N. Cortaro Road. Marana police later said it appeared the wrong type of lock had been put on the weapon at the store.

However, that’s not the case, a Walmart spokesman said.

On that day, Valencia, 36, allegedly stole a rifle and ammunition from Walmart and began walking toward businesses in the area, where police say hundreds of employees were working. While walking, Valencia threatened to shoot himself and fired a shot in the air as police pursued him.

The incident gained national attention after a dash-cam video was widely circulated. It showed Officer Michael Rapiejko’s patrol car speeding past another police car and striking Valencia.

During the course of the investigation, officers went to the Walmart to interview employees and photograph evidence, the police report said.

It noted that every shotgun or rifle had a trigger lock on it except for a lever-action rifle, identical to the model that Valencia fired into the air. That rifle was secured incorrectly, the report said, with a cable lock for a different type of gun.

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The cable lock, for a Mossberg brand weapon, “was wrapped around the stock and the lever,” an officer stated in the report. “Mossberg cable locks usually are fed through the ejection port and feed ramp in one of their shotguns.”

The report said that as the officer was leaving Walmart, he remembered that the weapon found at the scene also had a cable lock on it.

“I recalled the cable having a lot of slack,” the officer stated in the report. “It was not tight around the lever and the stock like the one in the case.”

The officer also said that the lock found on the rifle at the scene appeared to be a cable lock for a handgun, not a rifle.

However, Walmart doesn’t sell handguns, and therefore doesn’t have those types of safety locks, spokesman Brian Nick said.

“Our store policy requires safety locks to be placed on the firearms we sell, which is beyond what is required by law. The stolen rifle did in fact have a safety lock present,” he said. “Once it left our building it is entirely unknown the condition the lock was in after the suspect was struck by a police vehicle.”

The store also has surveillance footage showing Valencia pulling and manipulating the safety lock while inside the store, Nick said.