Bob Irwin highlights the latest self-defense and other shootings of the week. Read them and see what went wrong, what went right and what we can learn from self-defense with a gun.
Pharmacist Fires Warning Shot At Possible Robber Inside Drugstore
USA –-(Ammoland.com)- WSOC TV-9 reports 01-03-18 in Charlotte, North Carolina, a local pharmacist at a drug store, thinking he was going to get robbed fired a shot warning at the possible robber.
Police said a man walked into the Star Bright Pharmacy on Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road around 8:20 in the evening wearing a mask and gloves.
Channel 9 spoke to pharmacist, who said customers have to be buzzed into the store.
The pharmacist said as his previous customer was leaving the store, the suspect opened the door.
The pharmacist said the subject “was wearing a mask and some gloves and was moving pretty quickly. We’ve been robbed in the past. He looked like he was coming to do harm, and I felt very threatened.”
He added “I reached for my handgun, fired one warning shot in the air and the guy kind of backed off a little bit. Then I ran out to see what was going on, took his mask off, made him get on the ground and called the police.”
The pharmacist then detained the unarmed man until officers showed up. The 22 year old suspect was arrested and no one was injured
Channel 9 learned that Star Bright Pharmacy was previously robbed at gunpoint in 2016. The pharmacist bought the gun after that incident.
“A guy came in in a similar fashion, bust in, mask up and put a gun to my head,” the pharmacist said. “Myself and another patient had to go in, open up the safe, so it was a pretty traumatic experience.” (as quoted)
In that robbery, the thief didn’t take any money, just prescription drugs.
“It just speaks volumes to what’s going on with the whole opioid crisis,” the intended victim said. “People are getting desperate, and it’s really causing a lot of problems for people like myself.”
Comments:
“A warning shot into the air” can certainly be dangerous. Inside a building perhaps not so much. In any case it worked and no one was injured.
Hopefully given the pharmacist’s history, local prosecutors can overlook this particular statutory crime.
Bob Irwin, Las Vegas
About Bob Irwin
Bob is retired after 30 years of ownership of The Gun Store & Indoor Range in Las Vegas. He continues his 2A issues show “Fired Up with Bob Irwin” on YouTube and on KLEY 1230 AM, The Nevada Talk Network on Saturdays.
As a firearm instructor of Concealed Firearm Applicants, Armed Security Officer and Law Enforcement Academies over his career, Bob appears frequently as an expert witness for firearm & use of force cases in Federal, State, and local courts.
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