Three Armed Customers Stop an Armed Robbery in Georgia

Lethal Threats and Thinking Ahead

Crime happens. That fact is timeless. Violent crime also changes as we change and we are not the society we used to be. We might sit on the couch and watch big-city crime shows every night, but most of us know that the police won’t get to us in time to stop a criminal’s violent attack. Given where we live, the police are simply too far away. That is true in rural areas and in small towns across the country. Given the reductions in police budgets, it might be true in your city too. We also know that fewer criminals are being taken off the streets by our courts. That leaves the responsibility with us to defend ourselves until the police arrive.

This news story took place in a small rural town. It is unlikely that the town of Ellijay, Georgia has a police force since the population is less than 2000 people. That means that law enforcement is handled by sheriff’s deputies or by the state police. This story is nearly over by the time the police arrived on the scene. Put yourself in this story and see what happened a half hour after sunset last Monday.

The store clerk in the gas station-convenience store knew he had a problem when a customer pulled a gun from their pocket and pointed the gun at the clerk’s head. The robber was wearing pantyhose over his face in order to disguise his appearance. The robber demanded the money in the cash drawer. The store clerk thought the robber might kill him since other robbers have shot and killed store clerks before.

Though neither the robber nor the store clerk knew it at the time, the robber wasn’t the only person with a gun in that rural convenience store. One of the customers in the store was carrying concealed. The armed customer heard the clerk cry out. He saw the robber pointing his gun at the store clerk’s head. He saw the mask on the robber’s face.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that scene was a picture of an innocent store clerk facing a lethal threat. The customer believed what he saw.

We’re not sure about what happened next. We know the armed customer presented his firearm. He told the robber to stop. We don’t know if the customer moved so he was harder to see or harder to shoot. We don’t know if the robber lowered his gun. We know that there were other customers in the store during the robbery, and we don’t know if the armed customer had a clear shot at the robber without putting the store clerk or other innocent parties at risk.

This was when a second customer ran outside and grabbed his handgun from his truck. The second armed customer ran back inside and also pointed his firearm at the robber. With both armed customers pointing a gun at him, the robber inched towards the front door and no one fired.

Details matter and we don’t have security video to show us exactly what happened. The robber was a lethal and immediate threat when he had his firearm pointed at the store clerk. It is arguable that the threat was not immediate if the robber lowered his gun. Even though he may have been armed, the robber was not an immediate threat if he turned away and was moving toward the empty door.

A third customer was outside pumping gas during the robbery. He either saw the robbery or saw the second customer get a gun from his truck. The third customer grabbed his firearm and ran to the doorway of the convenience store. He also told the robber to stop.

I assume the third armed customer was standing in or near the doorway. The third armed customer did not have to move out of the way in order to let the robber escape safely.

The robber was surrounded. The robber would become an immediate threat and be shot if he moved toward any of the armed customers or towards the store clerk. One of the armed customers told the robber to drop his gun and get on the floor. The robber did so.

The first armed customer recognized that the robber was no longer a lethal threat since he was disarmed and on the floor. The customer told the other defenders to raise their firearms. We’re not sure who called 911 and asked for the police.

The robber was uncooperative when the police arrived. He kept trying to run out the door and officers had to tase the robber in order to put handcuffs on him. The officers secured the attacker’s gun. They also arrested the robber’s wife. She was acting as the getaway driver and was waiting in their car beside the convenience store.

The male robber was charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The female robber was charged with armed robbery. Both remained in jail without bond.

It probably took longer to read this story than it took for the robbery to unfold. If you hadn’t thought about it ahead of time, then you probably wouldn’t know what to do even if you had a firearm with you.

These points stand out-

• Criminal don’t obey our gun laws.
• The armed robber was initially a lethal, immediate, and unavoidable threat to an innocent person. That justified the use of force, including lethal force. Said another way, using a gun might have been the safest thing to do.
• Good guys are reluctant to shoot bad guys even when they are legally justified in doing so.
• Dangerous threats require an immediate response. The first defender did not have time to run to his car and get his firearm. Because the first customer was armed, the other customers had time to grab their firearm and respond.
• The robber was no longer a threat when he dropped his gun and was laying on the floor. The defenders were wise to take their finger off the trigger of their guns and point their firearms in a safer direction. It is best practice to not point a gun at someone when they are not a threat.
• The first armed customer saved the store clerk. The other armed customers allowed the police to capture the criminal.

I don’t want to shoot anyone, but sometimes bad guys need to be shot. The fact is that until he lowered his gun, the robber could have murdered the store clerk. Verbal commands worked in this case. They don’t work every time. That leaves me with more questions than answers.

Should we use words and try to defuse the situation if the robber were threatening one of our loved ones? Should we press the trigger if a criminal was threatening a stranger? What changed from one case to the other? I thought I knew the answers but now I’m not so sure. I brought up those questions precisely because I need to think about them.

We won’t have time to weigh competing arguments when someone screams in fear. Thank you for being one of the good guys who go armed and who’ve thought about what to do.

News Sources from Atlanta stations-

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/customers-with-firearms-subdue-armed-robbery-suspect-ellijay-gas-station/85-422b51d9-8704-45cd-b09d-64f2a72d3e0c

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/ellijay-thief-womens-panties-face-mask

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I gave you 1200 words. Please share them with a friend and leave me your thoughts. RM