oh, I am willing to bet some transbinary tennis shoe sniffer down in Vegas P.D/prosecutors office ( who did such a stellar job losing Paddock's hard drive in the Vegas country music massacre )
Wanted to charge the store owner with something.
it is clear that the robber is a dumb kid camouflaged as a serious threat, he only managed to throw one punch and gave up pretty quickly.
The neck/spinal cord severing was a coup de tat , unnecessary, he really already won the fight .
Unlikely a NV jury would convict though, Wayne Burgarello up here in Sparks NV, owned an empty derelict looking house.
Crack heads used it as a place to smoke and sleep . Wayne Burgarello got tired of the mess and walked in on a couple sleeping on the floor and opened fire. the couple was no threat at all, sleeping.
They prosecuted him, he prevailed .
The rest of the state considers Vegas to be L.A east, a lost cause, it's totally blue and very corrupt ( it is clear that the local sheriff stole the gubernatorial primary from a real populist conservative )
Jumping over the counter sealed the kids fate.