Trial delayed for man accused in fatal shooting over theft of Little Debbie snack cakes

MILWAUKEE — A security guard at a Wisconsin gas station accused of fatally shooting a man over stolen snack cakes had his hearing postponed on Wednesday when he did not have an attorney.

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William Pinkin, 56, of Milwaukee, is accused of fatally shooting Isaiah Allen, 29, of Milwaukee, on Aug. 16 at Teutonia Gas & Food in the city, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Pinkin was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and was supposed to appear in court, but without an attorney, the case was pushed back to Sept. 8, according to WISN-TV.

“I’m extremely frustrated,” Charmian Easter, Allen’s grandmother, told the television station.

According to a criminal complaint, Pinkin was working as a security guard at the gas station. Investigators said that when Allen left the store without paying for Little Debbie snack cakes, Pinkin shot him, WISN reported.

Surveillance video showed Allen leaving the gas station without paying for the snack cakes, WITI-TV reported. The criminal complaint alleges that Pinkin shot Allen in the back of the head, according to the Journal Sentinel.

“All of us are flawed, but my son didn’t deserve this,” Easter told WITI.

Online court records show that Pinkin was convicted of first-degree reckless homicide and robbery in Milwaukee County in May 1989, the Journal Sentinel reported. He shot the clerk of a smoke shop in the head with a sawed-off shotgun during a robbery, according to court records.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Pinkin was released on state supervision in March 2023.

Monashay Howard, who lives near the gas station and runs a food stand outside the business, told the Journal Sentinel that Pinkin was “very erratic” but was not known to carry a firearm.

The owner of the station, Gurinder Nagra, said the incident “was just insane” and that Pinkin had been working for him for a little more than a month.

“I didn’t know he was carrying a gun. He was not supposed to do that,” Nagra told the newspaper.

According to online records from the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, Pinkin did not have a permit to work as a security guard, the Journal Sentinel reported. As a convicted felon, he was barred from possessing a firearm.

The state, however, does not require security guards who are directly employed by a business to obtain a permit, according to the Journal Sentinel.

Pinkin has not commented on the case. It was unclear whether he has secured an attorney for his Sept. 8 court date.

“The system failed him. He was falling through the cracks,” the victim’s mother, Natalie Easter, told WITI. “I think if they were supervising him more closely since he already did x amount of years for a murder, which he already should’ve gotten life for to begin with, then he wouldn’t have been here to take my son’s life.”