Pharmacist Fired From CVS for Using Gun to Thwart Robber

AP ^ | April 13, 2003 | Unknown

[azturk]

The Associated Press State & Local Wire

April 13, 2003, Sunday, BC cycle Kokomo, IN

A drug store manager who fired two shots at an armed robber has been terminated by CVS Corp. officials, who said his actions put his co-worker's life in danger.

Mike DeAngelis, spokesman for Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS, said Mike Hart was fired for exercising poor judgment.

"We certainly understand the difficult situation he's going through, but we investigated it and decided he exercised poor judgment in discharging a firearm at a fleeing suspect, needlessly putting people's lives at risk," DeAngelis said.

Hart, 46, had been the store's manager for three years. He said he feels he was terminated "because I fought back."

According to police reports, Hart and a female co-worker were getting ready to close the store on March 29 when a man walked in and asked about purchasing baby items.

The man pulled out a handgun and demanded money and forced Hart and his co-worker into an upstairs office, where the store's safe was located. Hart obeyed the man's orders and gave him cash. But instead of leaving the store with the money, the intruder then started to put on gloves.

[azturk]

Note the CVS officials' logic here: the co-workers life was not in danger until the pharmacist (not the robber) had possession of the weapon.

[68skylark]

Good post. This is a shocking story that has lots of people here (in Indiana) talking. It seems that CVS is very wrong.

[Calpernia]

Bump to you!

[Madcelt]

Well this says alot about "big" chain stores. I used to get stuff/medicines at the CVS. But since this..To heck with'em I'll go somewhere else.

[rllngrk33]

I will no longer do any business with CVS. They were wrong to fire the pharmacist for doing what anyone would do when their life was threatened.

[goldstategop]

Yup. If the pharmacist and his co-worker had been murdered, CVS' officials would have had no problem living with the outcome. Its just self-defense with a gun on the part of an employee they find intolerable. <sarcasm.

[Fixit]

Bump!

[MS.BEHAVIN]

A classic case of evil gets rewarded and good goes wanting..

It's bad enough that you have to have a STUPID card, to get any type of discount there, an insult and a hassle..we should get some kind of discount for simply shopping there..

I hate CVS, the way it looks, the way it is set up, (Unattractive) hate their stupid discount card, and because of this, hate them even more..Rite Aid runs a close second, every store I have gone into has indifferent staff, lousy displays, and snooty pharmacists

Phooey!

Chain stores suck..

Don't ask me how I REALLY feel about them!

Ms.B

[gunnut]

emailed CVS and plan to stay away bump.

[farmfriend]

ping

[jimkress]

Shoot them while they're FACING you.

[Wilhelm Tell]

You can blame this partly on political correctness and also the fear of lawsuits. Political correctness needs no explanation. The fear of lawsuits turns issues of life and death into issues about money. It could be cheaper for the company if the robber had murdered the employees than if an employee fought back and killed or wounded the attacker. Imagine if the robber or his family sues the company, and some jury of drug addicts makes the company pay $millions in "damages" to the criminal or his family. If the employees go willingly to the back room and the robber kills them, the company will have to hire a cleaning crew to clean up the blood and then pay the local newspaper for a Help Wanted ad to replace the employees who were killed. From your typical corporate bean-counter's perspective, the dead employees are a bargain. Why, right now, some ambitious MBA student is no doubt writing a paper about how such killings can be incorporated into a company's downsizing plans! If you read just about any politically-correct employee manual, it will state that it is practically the duty of an employee to be the willing target of a criminal if the employee can't run away! A lot of companies would fire a woman who works the night shift in a crime-ridden area if they find she is carrying pepper-spray in her purse. Human life will be held cheap as long as we have no tort reform and we keep the strange idea that it is "unfair" not to be a victim of a crime. We have for so long called good evil and evil good, and this is the result.

[Maelstrom]

It's good he didn't do it in New York.

He'd have been arrested for the following charges:

Discharging a firearm within 500' of a building.
Possession of an illegal handgun.
Possession of an unregistered handgun.
Possession of stolen property.
Assault with a deadly weapon.
Intimidation.

Sure, he could us a gun in self-defense, just not *that* gun, and not after he'd disarmed the criminal/attempted murderer or rapist (or both).

[Madcelt]

Well I have to be honest, never used one of thier cards. And for medicine,well, they were conviently located across from the doctors office. Now I will drive to the "family" owned pharmacy 30 miles away. Yeah I'll spend more to do it, but at least CVS won't get my money.

[Madcelt]

I will never darken thier doorsteps again. An incident recently where a convience store clerk shot at a robber,has inclined me to patronize the store. I feel safer going there. Unfortunately the local News idiots tried to make it sound so horrible. Whats the store policy on employees carrying guns to work?" They heard from me about thier "bias".

[xm177e2]

Yup. If the pharmacist and his co-worker had been murdered, CVS' officials would have had no problem living with the outcome. Its just self-defense with a gun on the part of an employee they find intolerable. <sarcasm.

Is that really sarcasm? That sounds closer to the truth.