Background: Law enforcement vehicles are stationed outside the Coffee County Pre-Trial Detention Center in Nicholls, Georgia (Coffee County Sheriff’s Office). Inset: Michael Lee Ansel (Coffee County Sheriff’s Office).
A man became irate over the cost of cigarettes at a Georgia convenience store, leading him to threaten the employees with shooting and “sending them back in a box,” according to authorities.
Michael Lee Ansel, age 39, faces charges for making terroristic threats and obstructing law enforcement officers. He was detained without bond at the Coffee County Pre-Trial Detention Center, as noted by the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office in a press release.
Deputies were dispatched to a convenience store on Highway 32 in Coffee County around 7 p.m. on Sunday night, following a call about an armed robbery. Witnesses informed the officers that the suspect had entered the store and engaged in a confrontation with the staff over “the price of cigarettes,” according to the sheriff’s office.
The suspect reportedly exited and re-entered the store twice, returning the final time with a weapon. During this last entry, he allegedly told the employees, “I’m gonna shoot both of y’all.”
The deputies from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office examined the surveillance footage, identifying Ansel as their suspect. A local resident with a past criminal record, Ansel was sought by detectives at around 9:30 p.m., and they successfully located him shortly before midnight.
“Upon contact, Ansel openly admitted to entering the store making threats to ‘Send them back in a box,'” the sheriff’s office stated. Deputies said his reasoning for making threats was frustration over the price of cigarettes being advertised at $6 but sold for $12.
When the law enforcement officers told him he was under arrest, the situation is said to have become more complicated.
“Ansel refused to comply and he immediately jumped in a nearby pond,” deputies recounted. And when detectives attempted to retrieve him from the water and detain him, “he then began having a seizure.”
“Deputies quickly rendered aid and safely removed him from the water without injury to himself or others,” they added. “It was later determined that Ansel was wielding a hatchet when he entered the store.”
Ansel’s criminal history includes convictions for burglary, theft, and entering a vehicle with intent to commit theft or a felony – with the charges stretching back more than 20 years. He was last released from Macon State Prison on Aug. 11, 2024, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
