Shoplifter Murders Manager of CVS: Police

The “California Effect” describes the well-known phenomenon that the huge state next door sets the political agenda for the entire country.

That reality has many Arizonans concerned as the Golden State has struggled mightily, especially these last few years since the pandemic. As our sister site California Globe has chronicled, California has lost population and has even lost a congressional seat for the first time in history. Its cities are failing in ways that are making international news. And the government sometimes seems more interested in staking out the far left edge of the culture wars —

The state senate just passed a bill to charge parents with ‘child abuse’ for not affirming transgenderism in custody cases and Democrats in California sponsored SB145 to remove those who engage in sex with minors from the sex offender list, so long as their ages are within 10 years of each other.

With San Francisco having witnessed store after iconic store shuttered by shoplifting and lawlessness, the rest of America is understandably on the lookout for any signs of similar behavior.

Unfortunately, a CVS in Mesa just suffered a tragic or particularly tragic indicator.

Last Thursday, Mesa PD arrested 38-year-old Jared Sevey for a homicide that took place inside the drugstore. According to the police, 49-year-old store manager Michael Jacobs had confronted Sevey at about 3 pm and ejected him for shoplifting from the drugstore, located at 305 E. Brown Road. Police said the store “declined to prosecute and he was let go, but a trespass order was filed.”

Sevey was already barred from owning firearms because of past convictions, but grabbed his gun nevertheless and told his daughter to go to her grandmother’s house. At about 7 pm, Sevey returned to the CVS to confront Jacobs. He shot Jacobs at least four times. According to a press release issued by Mesa PD, “Officers arrived at the northwest corner of Mesa Drive and Brown and witnessed Jared throwing what appeared to be a gun into the canal. They detained Jared and noticed he had blood on his person. Jared made spontaneous statements that he shot Michael. Officers recovered the gun from the canal.”

Sevey is said to have told the police about the murdered husband and father of two children, “I bet he ain’t talking shit no more.”

Obviously, this awful incident does not by itself indicate a crime wave. The statistics on the rather elaborate Mesa PD website unfortunately only include uniform crime reporting stats through 2020. Sergeant Jamey Cox told The Arizona Globe that the Mesa PD “will have to look into that” next week and will provide updated numbers if they’re available.

Meanwhile, according to the Arizona Republic, Phoenix alone recorded 223 murders in 2022, the city’s highest number of homicides in 15 years. Statewide, at least 494 people were murdered in 2022, according to Arizona Department of Public Safety data, the second highest total since UCR numbers were standardized in the 1960, and the number could grow as a few 2022 cases could yet be logged as homicides.

Any time shoplifting leads to violence, it of course brings to mind the chaos and destabilization Arizonans have watched befuddle their next-door neighbor.

It remains to be seen whether things that many Californians believe have led to these problems—bail reform and a law declaring theft under $950 is not a felony – will find similar champions in Arizona.

DISCLAIMER: Arizona Globe has made a small donation to a GoFundMe established to aid the Jacobs family.