Grocery Store Owner Shoots at Bad Guy in Self Defense

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Snipped from: http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/17678454.html

The shooting happened in the afternoon inside Village Food and Liquor in Milwaukee was caught on surveillance tape.The store was busy at the time the gunfire was exchanged.

Workers say it all started when the suspect tried to steal something. The suspect and clerk started fighting. The clerk grabbed a baseball bat, trying to fend off the suspect. The clerk says the suspect left and came back with a gun and approached the clerk at the counter. That's when the clerk got his gun.

As the suspect left, he started shooting at the clerk. The clerk stuck his arm out a doorway with his gun and started shooting back, firing 12 shots in self defense. According to the clerk, the man was dropped off by a group of people. After the shooting, they left him, and he took off on foot. The suspect is still at large.

One customer was almost caught in the cross fire. Other customers saw the man come in with the gun and quickly ran out of the store. Others appeared to continue to shopping.

The clerk says he wasn't arrested or cited because he was shot in "self defense."

After looking at the surveillance video, it is amazing no one was hurt.

Discussion: http://www.keepandbeararms.com/news/nl/read_comments.asp?nl=68816234148907&tmpD=4%2F15%2F2008

"The video does not show the clerk sticking his arm out the door to the store. It shows the clerk bringing his gun up over the counter as the criminal comes in with a gun in his hand. The clerk only fires when the man raises his weapon. From the video, the clerk is holding his weapon at a slight sideways angle. This is not a good way to hold a firearm even though they show it all the time in the movies. Perhaps the clerk should get some training so that next time he shoots at a bad guy, he'll hit him."

"I find it amazing that the person in the video wearing the green jacket seems to run towards the doorway even as the two shooters are exchanging gunfire through that doorway. Was that person deaf and dumb or on a death wish?"

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The clerk needs to take a gun class. He is holding the gun wrong, making himself to much of a target, etc etc.:cuss:

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http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/17911459.html

MILWAUKEE - A wild shootout inside a Milwaukee store: a clerk fights back by shooting at the gunman.

So why did he land in jail?

That clerk is a convicted felon. He's not allowed to possess guns, so he was arrested.

However, the district attorney's office looked at the case and decided not to charge the clerk.

The 23-year-old clerk was being released from jail Friday evening. Prosecutors looked through police reports and the surveillance video that showed the shootout, and Friday afternoon decided not to charge him.

Police say the suspect came into Villard Food & Liquor at N. 51st Street and Villard Avenue with the gun last weekend. As the suspect left, he started shooting at the clerk. The clerk then fired back.

“Actually he was protecting himself, other people in the office, cashiers and customers so yeah it was an issue of safety,” the clerk’s attorney, Orthman Atta said.

Atta says the gun is legal and belonged to the store, not the clerk.

The surveillance video shows what happened before the shooting. Atta says the suspect shoplifted and starting beating an employee. That's when the clerk got the bat, trying to get that person out of the store. "That person started threatening. He said ‘I’m gonna come back with a gun,’ and in fact, that is what he did. He came back with a gun and he was prepared to kill," Atta explained.

In the surveillance video, you can see the suspect go to the counter and the clerk holding the gun. Atta says the clerk was asking the man not to shoot.

The suspect then rounded the corner and began to shoot. The woman, seemingly oblivious, nearly walked into the gunfire. Amazingly, no one was hit.

“I think the guy is very lucky he hasn't been apprehended, but (the clerk) is very lucky that he is still alive,” Atta said.

The clerk was convicted of a felony drug possession five years ago. Even though he fired a gun, prosecutors decided not to charge him because of the circumstances.

“Even if he would not have shot him, he would not have been prosecuted for that because it was clearly within his rights to self defense and defense of others,” Atta said.

Police are still looking for the suspect who started the shooting.

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I hate starting a new thread for every shootout. It seems better to keep them in one thread, since shootouts aren't generally OC topics. Let me know what you think of the idea.

In the mean time, this new story is another interesting store holdup:
http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/18689479.html
Police say an armed robbery occurred Sunday 2:25 p.m. in the 2600 block of N. 35th Street.

A 43-year-old owner of Alliance Super Food Market was behind the counter when a 17-year-old suspect came in and demanded cigars. The owner said “pay up” and the suspect pulled out a gun.

The owner convinced him to take the gun outside, so the suspect put the gun behind a newspaper stand and came back in.

The owner gave the guy a cigar and the customers ran out.

Turns out, police were investigating an accident down the street and the customers got them. They ran to the scene and arrested the suspect.

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Another robbery presented here so WI isn't full of non-OC threads. Snipped from: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=751602

Robber with fake gun gets 10 years
May 15, 2008

Waukesha - Wearing a ski-mask, Matthew S. Baker shoved a fake handgun into bartender Kari Mirek's back, walked her to the cash register and put the gun up to her head. She didn't know the handgun Baker was using to rob the Wonderland Tap in the City of Pewaukee was a fake.

"I'm asking you to put him behind bars, to give him the longest sentence you could possibly give him. This wasn't his first crime. He sits before you with multiple crimes under his belt," Mirek said. Judge Dreyfus did just that, sentencing Baker, 21, of Waukesha to 10 years in prison for a crime spree between November 2006 and March 2007 that included two armed robberies, burglaries and criminal damage to property.

In sentencing Baker, Dreyfus also considered a statement from another of Baker's victims. Diane Goetsch, in a letter submitted to Dreyfus, talked about how Baker pointed a gun at her during the Feb. 26, 2007, robbery at Wendy's restaurant, 2112 E. Moreland Blvd. in Waukesha. In the event that there is a request for leniency based on the fact that the gun was not real, Goetsch wrote, the "terror of that horrible day was real." "There should be no reward for inflicting terror with a fake weapon," she stated.

Dreyfus told Baker, "When people have a gun pointed to their head, they are not thinking, 'Gee, I wonder if it's real.' It's quite clear they thought they were going to die."

Baker told authorities he was high on crack when he committed the crimes. He apologized and told the judge he wishes he could take back the pain he caused his victims and that he was turning his life around, having recently married. His wife and infant daughter were in the courtroom. "I just ask that you not take my life away. Give me the chance to prove that I'm not a bad guy," Baker said. He was hoping to get a year in jail and 10 years of probation, a sentence both Baker's attorney and prosecutors had recommended because Baker had cooperated with police.

But Dreyfus said, "When someone puts a gun to somebody's head and robs them, they are going to go to prison. It's just that simple."

When Baker is released from prison, he will be on extended supervision for 10 years, and when that is up, he will be on probation for another 10 years.

Baker's accomplice, Bernina A. Garcia, 21, of Waukesha, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 29.

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Comment: We need to stop sentencing people because of how others feel or what the criminal might have been thinking and sentence them based on the crimes committed. Do the crime, do the time; cut and dried.