The initial reports were that the store owner shot and killed a would-be robber in the City of Brotherly Love. After the initial, confused reports, things were clarified:
Armed robbery suspect shot, killed by customer in North Philadelphia store, police say
Fox 29 News | Wednesday, March 30, 2022 | 1:42 PM EDT | Updated 5:41 PM EDT
Crime scene. Photo via Steve Keeley, Foxn29 News.
PHILADELPHIA – Authorities say a suspected armed robber was shot and killed by a customer at a North Philadelphia corner store Wednesday afternoon.
Officers from the Philadelphia Police Department were called to the 1400 block of Master Street around noon for reports of a shooting.
A police source told FOX 29’s Jennifer Joyce that two young men wearing masks entered the store and approached a man in his 23-year-old man waiting for a food order. One of the robbers hit the man in the head with the gun and a struggle began.
The robber handed the gun to his accomplice at which point law enforcement sources said the customer shot the armed robber twice in the abdomen. The customer is licensed to carry a firearm, according to police sources.
The suspect was taken to Temple University Hospital by responding officers but later succumbed to his injuries. The second robber fled the store after the shooting and has not been captured.
Law enforcement sources say the customer was released and is unlikely to be charged. The entire incident was captured on store surveillance that has already been turned over to investigators.
When I checked the Philadelphia Police Department’s Current Crime Statistics page on Thursday morning, I found the number of killings unchanged since the previous day, which means that the Department did not consider the killing of this thug to be a crime. Some of us might even consider it a public service.
I had figured that, being a day later, even The Philadelphia Inquirer ought to have something on this story, but, unless I completely missed it, there was no story on it on either the newspaper’s website main page or specific crime page.
The bodega in which the shooting occurred is on the corner of Master and 15th Streets, close to Temple University, and it isn’t a slum. Rather, 15th Street is lined with fairly new construction three-and-four-story residences, with the look of having been constructed to house Temple students.
We noted, just a couple of weeks ago, that applications for concealed carry permits in Philadelphia had surged, and the reasons are clear: the city is not protecting citizens from the gang-bangers and the criminal class, and the public increasingly feel the need to protect themselves. When the District Attorney, a George Soros stooge, won’t prosecute crimes, won’t put the bad guys behind bars, what real choice do Philadelphians have?