Colin Loderhose recognized one of the two 20-year-olds who entered Anchor Tactical Supply Wednesday morning as a man who had stolen an AR-15 pistol from the store a day prior. The confrontation that followed ended with a gunshot that killed Loderhose. On Thursday, the man suspected of pulling the trigger was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the 25-year-old employee’s death.
Zachary A. Cano was also charged with first-degree robbery, first-degree assault, armed criminal action and stealing. He is being held in the Greene County Jail without bond. Jonathan C. Peace, the man who Loderhose identified as the gun thief, was charged with multiple counts of felony stealing and is being held with a $500,000 bond.
The fatal shooting outside Anchor Tactical Supply, 2346 S. Campbell Ave., was the second time that morning the pair had visited a local firearms store and attacked an employee, according to police records. The probable cause affidavits for their arrests state that Cano asked a clerk at All About Guns, 1948A S. Glenstone Ave., to show them an AK-style rifle on display behind the counter. The employee later told police the men headed to the door once the gun was in Cano’s hands, and he yelled at them to stop.
He chased them outside and Cano tripped, according to the affidavit. The employee was able to wrestle the gun back from Cano, but not before he said Cano swung it at him like a baseball bat, striking him in the face. The incident, which the employee reported later Wednesday after receiving emergency treatment for a gash to his face, happened at about 8 a.m.
About an hour later, Cano and Peace arrived at Anchor Tactical Supply, according to the affidavit.
Loderhose reached for his gun after bullet struck him
Springfield police who responded to the shooting call reviewed footage from three security cameras at Anchor Tactical Supply, as well as footage from the neighboring hardware store. According to the affidavit, the footage showed a confrontation that began inside the store and escalated outside the front door. Cano can be seen on camera pulling a gun from his waistband and then fleeing the scene with a weapon in his right hand. Loderhose can be seen reaching for his own weapon after falling to the ground just outside the front door. While the footage did not show Cano firing the weapon, the affidavit states that it contradicted several statements police say Cano later made in which he claimed he pulled his gun in self-defense.
Cano and Peace first walked in the store just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, according to the affidavit. Minutes later, security footage shows Loderhose confronting the two and taking photos of them with his cell phone. An investigator states in the affidavit that he learned that the confrontation ensued because Loderhose recognized that Peace had stolen a weapon from the store just a day earlier.
In an interview after his arrest, Peace told investigators that Cano had gone to the store with the intent to steal another weapon, while he agreed to go to the store because he planned to return the one stolen yesterday, according to the affidavit. After Loderhose confronted him, Peace said he apologized and told the employee that the gun was in his car, and that he could go get it.
Cano and Peace soon headed for the front door, with Loderhose following them. Loderhose pushed Peace once and Cano once as they exited. Peace walked away, but Cano continued to argue with Loderhose, according to the affidavit.
Footage from an outside security camera shows Cano turning his back to Loderhose and walking slowly away, while removing a gun from his waistband with his right hand as his back was turned to the employee, according to the affidavit. He then transitioned it to his left hand and racked the firearm. As he was doing this, he was moving out of the security camera frame, according to the affidavit.
Loderhose remained in frame, and could be seen in the footage reacting “in apparent surprise, and then is seen being shot,” the affidavit states. He fell to the ground and, after a moment, pulled a concealed gun from his holster. He appeared to fall unconscious, according to the affidavit, and the gun he had reached for fell to his side.
Footage from a Westlake Ace Hardware camera showed Peace and Cano running south through the parking lot after the shooting. Peace appears to be unarmed, while “it is readily apparent (Cano) is carrying a firearm in his right hand,” according to the affidavit.
Suspects found with stolen firearms from two stores
A witness to the aftermath of the fatal shooting called 911 from the parking lot and reported that two suspects got into a gold Chevrolet Impala after running away from the shopping center. The witness stayed on the phone with 911 while following the men in the Impala, providing directions for emergency dispatchers to give to police. The witness lost the car around the intersection of South Kansas Expressway and West Bennett Street, but said it might have turned into an apartment complex.
Two Springfield police officers checking the parking lot of Kensington Park Apartments, 1735 W. Bennett St., spotted two men outside of a gold Impala. The trunk was open, and they were removing their clothes, according to the affidavit. Police yelled at them to put their hands up. The affidavit states that Cano attempted to reach inside the open passenger side door, in the area of the glove compartment. Police yelled at him to step away from the door, and “both he and Peace eventually complied and laid prone on the ground,” the affidavit states. They were cuffed after other officers arrived.
Police searched the glove compartment and found a cache of weapons, including two that had been reported stolen on Tuesday. The AR-15 pistol stolen Tuesday afternoon from Anchor Tactical was found in the passenger seat. An AM-15 rifle reported stolen Tuesday from All About Guns was found in the driver’s seat. A Glock handgun was found in the glove compartment. The affidavit states that “multiple other guns were later located in the vehicle as well.”
Later, when being questioned by police, Cano allegedly told investigators that Loderhose had pushed him three or four times and flashed his weapon at him. According to the affidavit, “this was not seen to have happened on the surveillance footage.”
Loderhose’s death was the 11th homicide in Springfield so far this year.
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A gun store employee in Springfield dies in shooting. Police investigating as a homicide
Cavin Loderhose’s fiance Meghan Staley called him Wednesday morning and said she’d just received a call from their tailor about a shooting at a neighboring business, Anchor Tactical Supply. Cavin’s brother Colin, an employee there, had been wounded and taken to Mercy. Cavin Loderhose, a former Marine who served on fire and rescue crews in…
