Loved ones are remembering a man who was shot and killed inside a Walmart in Lauderdale Lakes as he tried to intervene in an argument between two employees.
Thierry Bastien, 41, died Tuesday in the hospital after he was shot several times in the chest, back and lower extremities, allegedly by an off-the-clock employee.
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"Good energy, everybody liked him when they met him," Bastien's cousin, Karlisle Honore, told NBC6 over the phone. "Really dedicated to family, he was a good person. He had a really good heart."
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Bastien was inside the Walmart on North State Road 7 with his girlfriend and kids when the argument broke out near the frozen food section between 22-year-old Tironie Shavar Sterling and a female employee.
The argument escalated into a physical fight, police said. Bastien stepped in to help the female employee but got into a physical altercation with Sterling.
Police said Sterling then picked up his gun and shot Bastien multiple times. Detectives later found 10 spent 9mm bullet casings at the scene.
"(Bastien) had asked to get someone over there to help out," Honore said. "And I think when it became physical, he was like, OK, I got to step in."
Honore, who described her cousin as a loving man, said it doesn't surprise her that he would have tried to jump in and help.
"It's really angering to think that even if it wasn't him, someone would have been hurt," she said. "And it's also angering to think it could have been worse."
