‘There was no apparent reason:’ Cannabis store worker charged after allegedly killing robbers with homemade gun

The cannabis store worker who killed two alleged robbers did not leave the scene when he previously had the opportunity to do so, say prosecutors in Multnomah County, Oregon.

The attorney of Jason Robert Steiner, 34, pleaded not guilty on his behalf when he showed up to court during a hearing on Thursday, according to The Oregonian.

Authorities said that the defendant, an employee at the regional cannabis dispensary chain La Mota, was at a location the night of Oct. 3, reported the outlet and also NBC Portland affiliate KGW. He had told officers he was the only employee there that night, prosecutors wrote in an affidavit. Hearing a sound when he was in a backroom, he stepped out to find three individuals pointing guns at him, he allegedly said.

They let him go, but based on one of them wondering aloud what he had on him, he feared they would follow him out, Steiner allegedly said. According to cops, he told investigators he took out his gun from his backpack once outside, and waited at the door in case they followed him. For example, he left his vehicle keys in the building and he voiced concern to officers that the robbers might take his car and “hunt him down.”

The robbers did not follow him out, however, he allegedly said. He went up to the drive-through window, and thinking one of the individuals inside had a gun out, he decided this “was his chance,” and he opened fire until running out of bullets, he allegedly said.

Steiner was the one to call 911. Police said they arrived to find King Lawrence, 18, dead at the scene. Tahir Burley, 20, was attempting to breathe but eventually died there as well. A third person seen on surveillance footage had already fled, officers said.

Authorities are charging Steiner with two counts of second-degree murder and a count of attempted murder because he did not leave when he had the chance.

“At that point, there was no apparent reason why Mr. Steiner did not leave the area,” police wrote. “The individuals were inside the building, the door was closed and Mr. Steiner was the length of the building away from the door and around the corner.”

Though surveillance footage roughly matched his story, it also showed that he opened fire through the drive-through window “almost immediately,” and that none of the three people inside had any gun out when he did so, investigators claim. Only Burley took out a gun, and that was after Steiner shot him, authorities said.

Investigators described finding 13 shell casings at the scene. Steiner allegedly introduced himself as the shooter when law enforcement arrived at the scene, and gave them both the weapon and an empty magazine, authorities said.

Asked why the semiautomatic weapon lacked a serial number, he said he made it, authorities said.

Steiner is reportedly serving three years of probation for a Dec. 15, 2021 incident in which he plowed his pickup truck into a truck belonging to the manager who fired him from another dispensary, then sped past a redlight into an unmarked sheriff’s patrol car, and kept driving until the sheriff’s sergeant in the damaged patrol vehicle successfully caught him.

A former coworker at that business, NW Compassion recreational and medical dispensary, told the outlet that Steiner was there for only a few weeks until he was accused of stealing from the register.

He was not charged with theft, but pleaded guilty on May 22, 2023, to charges including recklessly endangering another person — just days after he renewed his state permit to work in dispensaries and reportedly did not note any criminal convictions.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]