Man In Critical Condition After Shooting Inside Downtown OKC Dispensary

A shooting inside a medical marijuana dispensary Thursday night in downtown Oklahoma City sent a man to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

A dispensary employee was arrested after the shooting. 

On Friday, police said the man shot was possibly homeless. The victim was shot in the chest, taken into surgery and remains in critical condition as Friday evening.

The Plant-Med dispensary near West Main Street and Western Avenue was back in business the day after a shooting inside the store. The business was surrounded by crime scene tape and police for hours Thursday night. 

Investigators learned a confrontation between employee, Michael Pendas, and a man started in the parking lot.

“He was in the parking lot doing something to vehicles,” said Master Sgt. Gary Knight, Oklahoma City Police Department. “Messing with them somehow or doing something to them when an employee went out and confronted him and told him to leave the vehicles alone.”

Knight said Pendas went back inside the store and the man followed him.

“They had another verbal confrontation, and at some point, the employee fired at the man, striking him, wounding him,” said Knight.

The owners of the business did not want to talk on camera but said there were not any customers in the store, only employees. They were all very shaken and stayed for police to get there.

“There were several people interviewed and the man who actually did the shooting was booked in the Oklahoma County jail on assault with a deadly weapon charge,” said Knight.

Plant-Med employees expressed concern for their fellow coworker and the man who was critically injured. Investigators did not find a weapon on the victim and do not think the employee was acting in self-defense.  

“Based on the totality of the circumstances that we saw, we felt it was appropriate to go ahead and book him in on that charge,” said Knight.

The case is still under investigation. The Oklahoma County district attorney will decide what charges Pendas will face.