Liquor Store Clerk Kills Man Swinging Samurai ​Sword

PORT JEFFERSON, NY — A man wielding a samurai sword was shot and killed by an employee of Port Jeff Liquors Thursday afternoon, the Suffolk County Police Department said.

Officers responded to Port Jeff Liquors, 156 E. Main St., after a clerk at the store called 911 at 2:23 p.m. and said he had shot a man who came into the store swinging a sword.

Detectives determined 50-year-old Theodore Scoville went into the store and swung a samurai sword three times before the clerk shot him. Scoville, of Port Jefferson Station, was pronounced dead in the store.

Police did not identify the store clerk. The clerk's gun is legally owned and no criminal charges have been filed.

"He had a sword beneath a poncho, it seems to be without saying a word, he pulled the sword out, swung it three times — at least three times — at a very close distance to the person behind the counter," Suffolk Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer said of Scoville, according to an ABC 7 report.

Kathianne Mirras Snaden, a Port Jefferson Village trustee, called the shooting a "tragic circumstance" in a statement on Facebook.

"It appears that an emotionally unstable person entered a local business here in our village with a weapon," she wrote. "His actions posed an eminent threat to the merchant, who, regrettably, was forced to shoot the individual in defense of himself."