Posted on 11/06/2006 2:51:14 PM PST by Lurker
ROSELLE, Ill. -- A shooting inside a DuPage County comic book store has left the owner of the store injured and an alleged intruder dead.
In a news conference Friday, police said the intruder may have been looking for collectable coins.
Police described the incident as a real shoot out, as the two men emptied their weapons into each other.
Both men are in their 40s.
The owner of the store was taken to Alexian Brothers Hospital with a gunshot wound to his arm.
The alleged robber, who is reportedly from Hanover Park, was pronouned dead.
More details from WBBM:
Roselle Shopkeeper Kills Robber In Gunfight
Bob Roberts Reporting
ROSELLE, Ill. (WBBM) -- A 40-year-old parolee from St. Louis was shot dead during a gunfight with the owner of a Roselle collectibles store, who was wounded.
WBBM's Bob Roberts reports.
A digital surveillance video caught the shootout that occurred inside the Westlake Cards, Comics and Coins store, at 1234 W. Lake St., in Roselle. After reviewing the video, DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett declined to press charges against the 49-year-old shopkeeper, a resident of Hanover Park, in the death of ex-convict Geoffrey Webb.
“The question is whether or not this store owner had the right to protect himself and to have a weapon,” Birkett said. “He does. He has a (Firearm Owners Identification) card. He's got that right under Illinois law.”
Roselle Police Chief James Kruger said the surveillance video shows Webb entering the store just before 10:30 a.m. Friday, placing a black bag on the horseshoe-shaped counter and speaking for several minutes with the shopkeeper, whom authorities refused to identify.
Kruger said Webb suddenly pulled a gun from the bag, in which duct tape and handcuffs were later found, and vaulted the counter.
“There was clearly an imminent threat to the store owner's life, and clearly the intruder was in the commission of a forcible felony,” Birkett said.
The shopkeeper told police he had been robbed when the store was located in Glendale Heights, and since then has kept a handgun on his desk in the event of robbery. He was standing next to the desk when Webb vaulted over the display cases.
Kruger said the video appeared to show Webb firing first, wounding the shopkeeper through an arm with one of his shots. The shopkeeper wounded Webb several times, including the apparently fatal bullet to the head.
Birkett said the shopkeeper did not know Webb was dead when he ran from the shop into a neighboring Chinese restaurant, and needed help to place his call to 911. Police entering the store found Webb on the floor, next to safes near the store's rear exit.
The shopkeeper was released after treatment at St. Alexian Medical Center, in Elk Grove Village. Kruger said no one else was in the store when the shootout occurred.
The store is in a strip mall. A sign in its blanked-out front window reads, “We pay cash for class rings, sterling silver, broken jewelry, dental gold, silver and gold coins.”
Police were unsure if Webb had previous dealings with the store or had cased it.
Reporters asked Birkett if he was recommending that shopkeepers have guns in their stores.
“I'm not recommending anything. Absolutely not,” Birkett said. “I don't make those recommendations. My job is to evaluate evidence and make decisions based on the law. He had a right to possess a weapon. He had a (firearm owner's identification) card, he has a right to have the weapon.”
Birkett said the practice is legal except in municipalities, such as Chicago, that specifically bar handgun ownership.
Both weapons used were handguns.
Webb was sentenced out-of-state to 15 years in prison in 1994 for armed robbery. It was unclear how long he had been on parole or been in the Chicago area. Police evidence technicians recovered his car outside of the store.
The DuPage County Coroner's office scheduled an autopsy for Webb at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
Police said they will file no charges against the store owner.
He has right to have a weapon and to protect himself with or without an IL FOI card.
It bugs me no end to hear LEOs and government officials saying that the state confers on a citizen the right to possess arms and to defend himself or herself with deadly force. Those rights are conferred on every man and woman at birth, not by the state upon payment of what amounts to a tax on a right granted by God and not by the state. The 2nd Amendment merely forbids government infringement of that natural right, a restraint which is routinely violated by government at every level from local ordinances to federal law.
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I have to get this rant off my chest now and then to keep my blood pressure under control.
REMEMBER TO VOTE TODAY, AND REMEMBER WHO OUR FRIENDS ARE AND WHO OUR ENEMIES ARE WHEN YOU MARK THAT BALLOT. When Democrats controlled Congress every session passed new restrictions of some type on guns and/or gun owners, since Republicans took control some of those restrictions, the AWB for instance, have been lifted. Vote for the candidate who will do the least harm to your rights even if you are unhappy with some of the things he or she has done or failed to do on other issues. History teaches that once our RKBA is lost our other rights will soon be lost also.
california is impossible to get a conceal and carry permit.
I wonder how all the shop owners are able to protect themselves.
I like the Remington 110 grain HP round with the scalloped jacket. It expands rapidly on impact with soft tissue, which minimizes overpenetration and maximizes tissue damage and shock. The 125 grain HP loads are claimed to be the most effective manstoppers, but they're also prone to overpenetrate and cause collateral damage in a populated area. Even worse in that regard are the 158 grain lead solids which will pass through a human torso at it's thickest point and still retain enough velocity to kill or seriously wound innocent bystanders.
The only time I carry a .357 mag is when I take my daily walks in an area where two very aggressive Rottweilers live. On other times when I go armed it's usually with a small .380 pocket pistol that's easier to conceal and lighter to carry. The dogs' owner has been warned by LE to keep them chained or penned up, but shes not very careful in that regard. Not too long ago the dogs treed a powerline worker on a power pole for quite some time until the woman came out and called them off.
If they ever come after me while I'm walking on a public road they won't survive the encounter if I have enough time to aim properly and squeeze off a cylinder of HPs. I love dogs, but I don't intend to be used as a chew toy by those two if I can avoid it.
In a referendum on a proposed handgun ban law last year the people of Brazil overwhelmingly rejected the proposed law. The government down there may not like the idea of armed citizens, but the people do and Brazil is democratic (with a small d) enough for the people to have their say on the issue.
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