Tamya Staten might be about to spend eight-and-a-half years behind bars, all for threats made with a gun that, from all appearances, she lacks the capacity to use.
According to WXIN-TV in Indianapolis, Staten is facing charges after police say the 21-year-old mother went unhinged, making threats to employees at a second-hand children’s clothing store after they asked her toddler to stop playing with toys.
Charges were announced this week, although the incident happened in July, the station reported.
From the Wednesday report:
IMPD officers were first called on July 16 to the Once Upon a Child store on 86th Street after an employee triggered the silent holdup alarm. Upon arrival, an employee began describing how Staten had pulled out a handgun and threatened her with it.
Staten had reportedly come into the store to sell clothing and brought her toddler with her. While completing the process of dropping off items, the employee saw Staten’s child playing in a small motorized car toy.
The employee told Staten that it was against store policy for children to play with toys in-store, and Staten reportedly said “okay.” However, the employee said she continued to let her child play on the car toy.
So then the employee reminded her again. This, according to WTHR-TV, is what resulted:
An Indianapolis woman is accused of pulling a gun on employees at a child store because they told her that her child can’t play on the toys.
Tamara Staten is charged with intimidation, a Level 5 felony and pointing a firearm, a Level 6 felony.
It happened in July at Once Upon… pic.twitter.com/b2HPg66loa
— Ashton Hackman WTHR (@ashtonhackmantv) September 30, 2026
I’m not sure whether or not to tell her that she can go to jail for pointing a gun at someone or tell her that she needs to learn how to use a gun before appearing to hold it by the grip below the trigger guard after pulling it out of her purse.
“We can fight about it. We can get down,” she allegedly told the employees after pulling the weapon. “I can use this [gun].”
Not holding it like that, you can’t. Anyhow, she then allegedly told her kid to keep playing with the toys and even showed the child how it worked. Considering her knowledge of guns, she probably ended up making things worse.
That being said, there’s the serious element that this appears to be a decent-sized handgun, which she shoved into her leggings before leaving the store, apparently unaware that she was caught on camera. Police eventually caught up with her because her license plate was captured on security video and she gave an ID card to store employees before the confrontation started, according to WXIN.
If convicted of intimidation with a deadly weapon and pointing a firearm at another person, she could face over eight years in state prison.
It’s amazing the amount of entitlement we have in this society when people think that their kids should be able to play with whatever toys they want and are ready and willing to point a gun in someone’s face to make that possible.
Without religion, is it possible to fix a culture that produces insane interactions like these?
Yes
5% (1 vote)
No
95% (20 votes)
This is small potatoes compared to other stuff, in the whole scheme of things. We have insane women who try to ram their SUVs into Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who then become martyrs to the cause. We have high school boys stabbing other high school boys because they were disrespected, and then liberals coming to their defense just because of an imagined racial element.
Rest assured, if this case stays in the media spotlight for long enough, she’ll find some defenders. It’s inevitable. Even if she doesn’t, this kind of thing seems to have captured the zeitgeist of our cultural moment: Oh, you’re telling me to conform to the rules? Hope you like dying, pig.
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