According to a recent report in ClickOrlando, two robbers were shot and killed when they tried to rob a jewelry store in the Magin Mall in Orlando, Florida.
The attempted robbery, which happened at around 11:45 in the morning, was conducted by four attempted robbers, so the police are still searching for the remaining two.
Of the two suspects who were shot, one was killed at the scene of the attempted robbery and so police had to do no searching for him.
The other one who was shot got in the car with the two other surviving suspects and drove off but, according to ClickOrlando, he was found in the abandoned vehicle and taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
WESH 2 reported what a customer of the jewelry shop, Jamani Lamb, had to say about the scene of the robbery and shooting. In Lamb’s words:
Lamb also described the moment of the shooting itself to WESH 2, saying “Boom! Boom! Boom! And then me and my pops jumped down and then we walk around, and we just see the people had ran.”
WESH 2 found a nearby business owner, Pete Lopez, who spoke on the robbery and the shooting as well. In his words:
“One of them got shot. He’s dead behind the counter. The other one, they left in a car and he’s up on Tampa Avenue, he died as well. I mean, this was a robbery. And the owner had a firearm, so he defended it.”
Indeed he did. And Mr. Lopez added what most people think upon hearing that robbery suspects were killed in the act of attempting to steal from someone’s business, saying:
“Can’t just go and rob peoples’ jewelry stores. You never know what’s going to happen.”
Fortunately for the business owner that had to use a firearm to defend his business, livelihood, and life from the four armed robbers, the incident happened in Florida, which is much more amenable to the use of deadly force by civilians in self-defense situations than blue states. Those blue states often forbid the carrying of guns and make it quite difficult to have a weapon suitable for such a self-defense situation, or place a heavy burden on the victim of the crime to retreat and give leeway to the robbers/burglars/other criminals before opening fire on them.
But, thankfully for the shop owner, Florida’s a red state and justified self-defense shootings are regarded much as Mr. Lopez referred to them: something that happens when criminals attempt to prey on law-abiding citizens.