Posted on 01/06/2007 6:36:38 AM PST by kerosene
A convenience store manager shot and killed a robbery suspect and injured another Friday after the men entered his North Las Vegas store and took the manager and several customers hostage.
The two suspects held up the American Mini Market at 2564 Las Vegas Blvd. North on Friday afternoon, North Las Vegas police said. Then, the robbery suspects bound the store manager and several customers using zip ties and tried to rob them, police said.
The manager, whose name was not released, escaped from the ties and retrieved a gun stashed inside the store. Shortly after 2 p.m., the manager exchanged "a bunch" of shots with the suspects, North Las Vegas police spokesman Tim Bedwell said.
Both of the suspects were hit with gunfire.
One of suspects stumbled out of the store and died in the parking lot, Bedwell said. The other, whose name also was not released, was hit in the lower extremities and fled on foot, leaving a trail of blood, he said.
The suspect was caught by police and taken to University Medical Center, where he was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, Bedwell said. Police said the man could be charged with robbery and murder once he recovers from his wounds. Under Nevada law, a suspect in a felony crime in which a person dies can be charged with murder even if their actions didn't directly cause the death.
No one else was injured in the shooting.
"This is how we like these incidents to end up," Bedwell said.
The customers called the manager a hero.
"He saved us all," said 27-year-old Kevin Aden, who was in the store when the suspects came in.
Aden said that he and the other people in the store were tied up for about 10 to 15 minutes in the back room as the suspects robbed them and the store.
Aden, a tobacco company sales representative, said he was not supposed to have been at the store at the time. He was traveling north on Las Vegas Boulevard on Friday morning, stopping at convenience stores to restock cigarettes when he accidentally skipped the American Mini Market.
"I just decided to go back there in the afternoon," he said. "That was a bad idea."
Police said there were conflicting reports from witnesses about the number of suspects in the incident. Bedwell said there might have been a driver of a getaway car and others involved in the robbery. Police planned to look at video surveillance footage to see whether others were involved, he said.
Police said they believe the two men who held up the American Mini Market were involved in a similar robbery at a convenience store on Thursday night.
Bedwell said customers at a store on Lake Mead Boulevard, just west of Pecos Road, about 1.5 miles from the American Mini Market, were bound with zip ties and robbed on Thursday night.
There were four suspects in that incident, he said. They had a "cavalier" attitude during the incident, similar to the attitude described by witnesses during Friday's holdup, police said.
"Witnesses reported they were laughing and joking in there (the convenience store) with their guns," Bedwell said.
During Thursday night's holdup, Bedwell said one of the suspects would stand near the store entrance with a gun behind his back. As customers entered the store, the man would put a gun to their head, walk them to the back of the store and bind them with zip ties, Bedwell said.
"That is as dangerous a situation going on as could possibly occur," he said.
Bedwell said police weren't considering charging the store manager in Friday's shooting of the robbery suspects.
"The initial impression of everybody is this was a justifiable shooting," he said.
"In a situation where their business gets robbed and the suspects flee, you can't chase them down and shoot them," he said. "It doesn't look like anything like that happened today."
Bedwell said the store manager's gun was registered and the witnesses' opinion that the manager is a hero could be accurate.
"If everything holds up true ... then yeah, he is a hero," Bedwell said.
Amen.
". . . you can't chase them down and shoot them . . . ."
So perps are forbidden to chase a victim and shoot him if he tries to escape? Good to know.
Boy, I bet he never tries that again.
Armed Citizen Ping
This guy has real potential as a police chief someplace.
**sniff**..I love a happy ending..
Wow! That manager definitely believes in gun control! Hold it steady, aim, fire! He got his target. Thieves beware!
--good post--I have requested that my duplicate above be pulled--
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The stumble killed him?
The other, whose name also was not released, was hit in the lower extremities and fled on foot, leaving a trail of blood, he said.Ouch! Bet that's gonna leave a mark.
Society is just a bit safer now! Give the guy a medal.
Pops stepped back from the cash register, he pushed the button on the register and both the big steel drawers slid out. At the same time he pulled a revolver out from under the counter. The bad guy starts to shoot, Pops who was a Marine shoots the bad guy dead. With a .45. Pops was not hit but the steel drawers took several .22 slugs.
The Houston police showed up, the last thing they did after they checked the scene and before they left was give Pops a box of new .45 bullets.
A few months later the company that owned the convenience store told Pops they were putting in one of these little plastic electronic cash registers. Pops retired.
Hmmm...gun registration isn't required in Nevada.
Convenience stores are a quagmire.
/sarc
Hmmm...gun registration isn't required in Nevada.
Yeah, you don't usually hear those words from a police spokesman.
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