Posted on 12/24/2016 10:56:50 AM PST by grundle
PITTSBURGH - A would-be robber was carrying a BB gun when an employee shot him Friday morning at a South Side restaurant, according to a criminal complaint.
The incident was reported just before 8 a.m. at the Subway restaurant in the 2700 block of East Carson Street. Authorities said 47-year-old Calvin Leon Smith entered the Subway, showed what appeared to be a real gun and demanded money.
One of two Subway employees told officers that he had felt threatened and had fired several shots with a 9 mm Glock, striking Smith at least once in the chest.
"One of the employees who has a concealed-carry permit and has a firearm apparently felt threatened for him and the other employees in the store, and shot the actor at least once," Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Emily Schaffer said.
A storefront window was broken during the incident, and Smith crawled out through the window, police said. A female employee who was hiding in a cooler told police she heard three shots, then she went out a back door and around to the front, where she saw Smith running away.
Smith fled down South 28th Street, where a man and woman in a Mercedes Benz picked him up, authorities said. The couple dropped Smith off at Allegheny General Hospital.
A state trooper in the area noticed the car parked in front of a home in the 800 block of Lovitt Way on Pittsburghs North Side, which then prompted a SWAT situation.
According to a criminal complaint, the man gave Smith a ride to the South Side and, when Smith returned to the car, he had been shot. The couple told police they didn't know Smith was going to the South Side to commit a robbery and said that Smith called someone on the way to Allegheny General Hospital, saying he'd been shot.
Smith was in serious condition Friday night with gunshot wounds to the chest, neck and abdomen.
Both Subway employees identified Smith from a police photo array. An arrest warrant was issued for him on charges of robbery and possessing instruments of crime.
Neighbors on Carson Street said they're on high alert. John Parker Sr., who manages Asian Fusion Bowl, which is next door to the Subway, said he knows the man who shot the suspect and will be checking in with him.
"He's a great employee. He has been there for over five years," Parker said. "I am going to go over there and give him my positive thoughts and words of encouragement."
Parker said, in light of the incident, his restaurant employees and other businesses along Carson Street will be making sure they are keeping a close eye out for anything suspicious, especially around the holidays.
"Nothing really happens here and we are a new business," Parker said. "It does put us on alert."
Will be fired.
Most, if not all, pneumatic BB and pellet weapons DONT have orange identifiers on the ends because they are not toys.
Like having a defensive lineman jump offsides... Free Play. Fire At Will!
If I had been that couple, that would have been my story to the police also. Which I believe about as much as the story that I will be elected President next week. The couple's private thoughts were:" The dumb shit has done and gone got himself shot. There goes our half of the money. We better come up with a good lie."
A bb gun can be lethal. You can put someone’s eye out with it and, if you shoot them in the right place, kill them. I believe that it is considered a deadly weapon.
Or, you could get a real gun and paint the tip orange. Then, if the guy laughs at you, you could shoot him and claim you thought it was a toy gun.
Or, it could have been one of those "a half inch in either direction and the doofus would have been dead" stories.
9MM did the job???
No it did not. When you pull a trigger three times making three solid body hits and the threat is not neutralized the caliber ammo combination did not do the job.
If the bad guy had a real gun he still had the physical ability to turn and engage the good guy. If he could run away he could have shot back...
Neutralize means make it so the bad guy can no longer be a threat to you or others. This shooter and the other employees got lucky.
OK guys, I guess I forgot the /S tag.
I can’t believe anyone would be stupid enough to attempt a holdup with a realistic looking replica of a gun, whether it shot BB’s or was completely inert and didn’t shoot at all. But, it happens all the time.
With all the “He was just turning his life around, why did they shoot him?” rhetoric, I figured BB guns could be fit in, too. “It was just a BB gun—why didn’t the (Cop, victim, shooter) look at the bore of the gun to determine it wasn’t real before deciding to shoot?”
They were probably pissed off at him for getting shot. By him getting shot, he was not able to rob the store. Him not being able to rob the store caused them to miss out on half of the robbery loot. Plus not they have to come up with a lie that the police will believe.
“All this talk about the caliber misses the point. 9mm did the job.”
Only reason it did anything is the dumbass didn’t have a real gun. 9mm is way better than nothing but you can fully unload on some perps and they’ll still come at you. Some of these street animals are huge, drugged and crazy.
Have a friend that was shot many times with a 9mm in the back at very close range (attempted carjacking) and he drove himself to the ER. And he is a small guy that wasnt on any drugs.
9mm handgun is only for the weak or to save space. If you can handle a bigger caliber, you should carry it.
Saw a bumper sticker the other day: .45 ACP — Like 9mm, except for grownups.
Haha. I think it’s outrageous insurance companies can say some ERs are “out of network” and not cover anything.
If you had a serious emergency and EMTs hauled you in, it’s not like you had a choice.
Too bad, so sad....
Good for the employee
Ping. I love a story with a happy ending.
The important data is what loading?
A bit more caliber is why I carry a .45 ACP XDS.
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