Store manager fights back against robbers

[BarryH]

Source: http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070611/NEWS0110/70611005/1075

 

Store manager fights back

Teen robber killed, boy, 14, wounded

 

By AMY SOWDER

asowder@news-press.com

Originally posted on June 11, 2007

 

The Neighborhood Discount Supermarket is a mom-and-pop shop that’s served its Fort Myers community for years.

 

Customers drop by for a pack of cigarettes, a gallon of milk or a bag of chips.

“They’re real, real good people,” Bob Ward, 55, said of the owners, David R. and Nancy Hutto, and the people who help them run the store.

 

The store manager had the right to defend himself when two masked, gun-toting teenagers tried to rob him Sunday, Ward and others said.

 

One suspect, 16-year-old Damione Massey, of 5047 Centennial Blvd. in Lehigh Acres, was shot in the head and died, face down, in front of the counter.

 

The second suspect, 14-year-old Devon Gallagher, also of 5047 Centennial Blvd., fled, wounded.

 

It was not known whether the two suspects were related.

 

The pair had a sawed-off shotgun and a handgun when they entered the store at 2130 Ford St. shortly before 12:24 p.m. and shot at the manager, said Fort Myers police Detective Sgt. Bill Musante.

 

The manager fired back with a pistol, police said.

 

The manager, whose name wasn’t released, wasn’t hurt, police said.

 

Gallagher was found a short time later at Lehigh Medical Center after police issued an alert to hospitals about a man with a gunshot wound.

 

He was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital, said police spokeswoman Shelly Flynn said. His condition wasn’t released Sunday.

 

Gallagher could face charges of felony murder because someone died during the commission of a felony, Flynn said.

 

Teen crime increases after school lets out for the summer, Musante said.

 

“It’s idle time,” Musante said. “This is an extreme form of what they choose to do with it.”

 

Sawed-off shotguns and other weapons are readily available on the streets, and children get their hands on them through burglaries as well, he said.

It’s unclear whether other employees or customers were in the store at the time of the robbery.

 

The Huttos have owned the store for many years, neighbors said and Lee County property records confirmed.

 

The Huttos didn’t answer telephone calls to their home Sunday night.

 

Pat Clark, 49, said she’s known the Huttos all her life and they are great people.

“I’m glad they didn’t get hurt,” Clark said as she stood by police cars Sunday afternoon.

 

“They gave my 95-year-old grandma a cake and flowers for her birthday.”

Standing in front of the yellow crime-scene tape Sunday afternoon, Musante agreed with those residents who said the manager did nothing wrong in defending himself.

“The bad guys lost,” Musante said. “We recommend you don’t resist, but if you choose to do so, that’s your right.”

 

The shooting happened in Dunbar, a community east of downtown Fort Myers that has seen murders and drug-related shootings, despite efforts by police and residents to attack crime there and to clean up the streets.

 

The attempted store robbery was the second shooting in less than 11 hours Sunday in Fort Myers.

 

A man was found with a gunshot wound to his neck shortly before 3:32 a.m. at an apartment complex at 4100 Edgewood Ave., northeast of Ford Street off Palm Beach Boulevard.

 

“Somebody is always robbing somebody and shooting them around here,” said Haven Weech, who’s 13 and lives near the market. “It doesn’t bother me because it happens a lot.”

[Airtime&Gravity]

Bet the robbers didn't see that coming...

 

Usually it is the other way where the clerk gets wounded of killed, but the robbers got what they deserved. Maybe I sound cold hearted by saying that, but they were asking for it. At least no innocent civilians got killed, and two teenagers paid a steep price for their stupidity.

[ParkTrips]

I remember something like this happening in rural GA a few years back. The store's owners were going to give into the teen robbers but they were being rude because the employees weren't moving fast enough, so an employee grabbed a gun and shot them. As I recall someone saying "too bad they didn't kill them, now we have to pay for the incarceration of that scum"

[Masked_Maverick]

I don't think the guy should go to jail. It was self defense he was getting robbed. So what one of the morons got killed. You should't of tried to rob a store then numbskull. I have no sympathy at all for dumb people..

[Goliath513]

Bet the robbers didn't see that coming...

 

Usually it is the other way where the clerk gets wounded of killed, but the robbers got what they deserved. Maybe I sound cold hearted by saying that, but they were asking for it. At least no innocent civilians got killed, and two teenagers paid a steep price for their stupidity.

 

Those guys had it coming, and they deserved what they got. Honestly, if they are stupid enough to take the risk of robbing some place, they should suffer the consequences. I don't want to see the (most likely stupid) parents of these teens sue the store because the store owners were only doing what was right. And with America's judicial system, injustice always slips through. Sorry for the rant, but this has hit my family as my aunt was robbed of $3000 at her bar earlier this year.

[Airtime&Gravity]

^^The clerk won't go since it was self defense what you said, but I bet the family of the dead robber might try to get a wrongful death lawsuit. The police are looking to charge the dead teens accomplice with murder.

[ginzo]

^^The clerk won't go since it was self defense what you said, but I bet the family of the dead robber might try to get a wrongful death lawsuit.

 

The young thug's family filing a wrongful death suit is close to a mortal certainty. And I hope that spiders nest in the spleen of whatever rotten attorney files that case for them. Right now I'm dealing with two frivolous law suits of my own.