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A local man involved in a fatal Port Arthur fast food robbery was sentenced to prison.

Jefferson County Criminal District Attorney Bob Wortham announced the news Wednesday, saying Desmond Ingram Jr. received 30 years with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Judge Raquel West handed down the sentence in 252nd Criminal District Court.

Prosecutor Luke Nichols said the violent robbery could have ended much worse.

“Ingram and his accomplice threatened and terrorized the store employees, and we are all grateful none of them were injured,” Nichols said. “The citizen who intervened likely saved their lives that night. A quick and thorough response by PAPD took another violent offender off the streets of Port Arthur.”

Ingram and Ricardo Guient entered Church’s Chicken Oct. 1, 2021, on Jefferson Drive in Port Arthur with a firearm and began to rob the store. Employees were forced into the back of the business while the men removed cash from the safe.

During the armed robbery, authorities said a bystander, who is a concealed handgun license holder, saw what was taking place through the drive through. He retrieved his personal weapon and fired at the two robbers through the window, police said.

Both men were struck. Guient died at a local hospital shortly after.

Port Arthur police officers responded shortly after to a report of a gunshot victim at a local apartment complex. Ingram was located wearing clothes that matched the robbery suspect’s clothing and had a gunshot wound to his abdomen.

Following a guilty plea to an aggravated robbery charge, Ingram was sentenced to 30 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He has several prior felony convictions and was out on supervised release for a federal firearms violation when the armed robber took place.

This case was investigated by the Port Arthur Police Department.