Robber fatally shot in Miami Burger King holdup

[-Cp]

The bloody event unfolded about 4 p.m. Tuesday at the restaurant at Northeast 54th Street and Biscayne Boulevard. It was a time, employees said, when it is usually crowded with schoolchildren and people getting out of work early.

The robber entered wearing a ski mask. He approached a clerk, showed his gun and demanded money, said Miami police spokesman Jeff Giordano.

A customer eyed him and the two started arguing. The customer had a concealed-weapons permit and his gun -- and the two exchanged gunfire.

The robber crumpled to the floor and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The customer, with several gunshot wounds, was in serious but stable condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center.

Full story at:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/966133.html

[hjmick]

I am a very strong advocate of being able to carry, open or concealed, but I have mixed emotions about this incident. Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor. If this Burger King was crowded, this could have gone very badly, and for what? Maybe $200.00? I think everyone was lucky the bad guy didn't start shooting widly.

In the end, good job by the customer, tough shit for the dead asshole.

[-Cp]

Yeah, I for sure don't feel sorry for the robber.... but... I'm not sure I would've confronted him for just a few hundred bucks...

Seems like it would've been better to just let him run off with the money and save yourself from spending time in the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds..

dunno.. tough call ...

[sgtdmski]

But isn't this always a slippery slope? What would have happened had the customer not confronted him and suddenly he opened fire on the customers? You never can tell what is going through the mind of a criminal. Had the customer waited and the criminal opened fire on the customers before the customer with the weapon pulled his weapon, how would the customer with the weapon had felt if one of the other customers died?

dmk

[-Cp]

I agree... and it's always easy to "monday-morning quarterback it"... again.. i wasn't there.. just speculating..

[glockmail]

But isn't this always a slippery slope? What would have happened had the customer not confronted him and suddenly he opened fire on the customers? You never can tell what is going through the mind of a criminal. Had the customer waited and the criminal opened fire on the customers before the customer with the weapon pulled his weapon, how would the customer with the weapon had felt if one of the other customers died?

dmkThat's exactly right. The guy has a mask on a a gun pointed at someone, robbing him. In order to protect an innocent life you have no choice but to blow his brains out.

[DannyR]

If he's robbed one store at gunpoint, he is likely to do so again. Guy took one for the team by taking this fellow out. :salute:

[Little-Acorn]

And, the next time some lowlife gets it in his head to pull a gun in a Burger King in Miami and threaten someone with death, might he now think twice? Remembering what happened to this lowlife? And maybe he'll leave his gun in his pocket and quietly walk out?

The most important thing guns do, especially in the hands of the law-abiding as we saw here, is DETER crimes.

The more criminals who realize they may wind up DEAD as a result of trying to rob someone in a crowded place, the better off we all are.

The only thing this good Samaritan did wrong, was argue with the lowlife. He should have stuck his gun in the lowlife's back by surprise and thumbed back the hammer. If the lowlife did anything other than freeze and surrender, the Samaritan then should pull the trigger.

Did the Samaritan owe the lowlife some sort of "fair chance"? Give me a break, this was no game. The lowlife decided out of the blue, to threaten people's lives. Who on Earth owed him anything as a result??? The Samaritan decided to end the threat. If the lowlife resisted, he'd get the consequences that HE set in motion. End of story.

I only fault the Samaritan's techniques, not his intent... nor his tools.