(FL) Armed robber killed in exchange of gunfire with jeweler07-30-03

[WAGCEVP]

(FL) Armed robber killed in exchange of gunfire with jeweler07-30-03


Sun-Sentinel: South Florida news
Address:http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...bery,0,2708132.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Robbery suspect killed in gunfight at Pompano jewelry store
By Shannon O'Boye
sun-sentinel.com
Posted July 30 2003, 4:45 PM EDT

POMPANO BEACH - An armed robbery suspect was shot dead by a man in a
jewelry store Wednesday morning, and deputies and their tracking dogs
are hunting another man thought wounded.

Police were questioning at least three witnesses to the mid-morning
stickup at the Jewelry Francy's store in the Cypress Village West
shopping center on Southwest Sixth Street, which is off Atlantic
Boulevard just east of Dixie Highway.

There were reports that shots were fired by both sides in the fray.

Here's what Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright
said happened:

Shortly after 11 a.m., two armed men entered the family-owned jewelry
and fashion store at 225 SW Sixth St. and attempted to rob it. The
owner, his son and two employees were in the store at the time. The
owner's unidentified son exchanged gunfire with the two gunmen, shooting
at least one. No one else was injured.
The other suspect fled empty handed.

The critically wounded man was rushed to North Broward Medical Center by
Pompano Beach Fire Rescue. He was pronounced dead there. He was not
immediately identified.

A second suspect in the robbery was believed shot and may have fled on
foot, possibly into the Garden Isles neighborhood. Police dogs were
brought in to help track him down.

A third suspect was taken into custody in Oakland Park. The car he was
in matched the description of the getaway car used in the attempted
robbery at the jewelry store.

A fourth suspect could be involved, also.

Anyone with information the robbery or the suspects should call BSO at
954-765-4321 or Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

I think they should create a medal for individuals such as this, that use justified deadly force to save themselves and others, similar to the Life Saving Awards they hand out for rescuing/reviving someone.

 

[P95Carry]

Stupids .... deserve to get shot up, for a start.

Second ... maybe too they don't have too much between the ears ... I mean come on ...... FL is full of CCW's ..... should be enough to deter any vaguely intelligent would-be perp!

 

[Hkmp5sd]

Stupids ....

They do make them dumber. Occasionally you will hear about someone getting a Darwin Award for trying to rob a gun store or someone robbing a 7-11 with a uniformed LEO at the counter beside them.

 

[Ed N.]

"FL is full of CCW's ..... should be enough to deter any vaguely intelligent would-be perp!"
===========================================

Probably recent transplants from PRNJ. Lotta out-of-state folks here during the summer. And lots of 'em shocked at how well armed we are.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I'm sure there are some assault lawyers working on law suits already.

 

[JonnyB]

I'm in the tunnel, and can see a light at the end:

The article didn't refer to the dead criminal as "the victim". That, in itself, is a positive element.

Jon B.

 

[CZ-100]

Hey, we may not be able to get the voteing right, But at lease we can shoot the BGs

There should defintly be a lot more of this...
(Shooting of the BG I mean)

 

[sturmruger]

Feelings

Whenever I read articles like this it always gives me a good chuckle, but it makes me feel like I am kind of a bastard. Is it ever right to be amused at someone else's demise?? If they are a bad guys maybe it is ok. I just don't know.

It seems to me if you go into a family jewelry store you have about an 80% chance of the owners being armed. These guys must be some of the stupidest people ever.

 

[Tamara]

Is it ever right to be amused at someone else's demise??

Since they went so far out of their way and put forth such effort to get demised, you should be happy for them; they obviously wanted to be kilt pretty badly.

 

[ElToro]

i dont know about FL law, but in PRK, those other 3 badnits would be tried for murder 1, even though they were gunned down by a good guy, becuz it was during the commission of a felony.

score 1 for the good guys

as to FL having so many CCW's.. in economics we call that "free riding" even the blissful ninnies get the benefit of reduced crime even though they may not be or ever want to touch a gun, soley on the fact that there are so many others carrying... sems silly that these crooks wernt that rational about their choices though.

 

[foghornl]

Good Guys 1
The Sleaze 0

As it should be in ALL states.....

 

[sm]

That's just what I needed to go with my coffee.

No -I don't feel bad. Small portable means of wealth that people kill over, and sometimes very organizied gangs that kidnap kids , spouses, to get what they want. Nope. Until you come home and find someone has broken in your back window and is waitng for you to come home. Or you get a heads up of a gang in the area and you have a wife and kid at the time and you send them away to her parents, and when these guys tell you they will kill you when speak to them in a prison...No I have no respect, no feelings at all. Except the other guy should be dead too.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

i dont know about FL law, but in PRK, those other 3 badnits would be tried for murder 1

Florida, too.

 

[Daniel T]

Is it ever right to be amused at someone else's demise??

I'm my own Demise, thanks. And I don't really see what's so funny about me...is it the hat?

...and put forth such effort to get demised...

Tamara made me into a verb! And a clever one too.

 

[Travis McGee]

I love a story with a happy ending!

 

[WAGCEVP]

Please note the quote from yours truly. Robert
******************************
Sun-Sentinel: South Florida news
Address:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...ul31,0,3127690.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Pompano Beach jeweler shoots robber to death in failed heist
By Jaime Hernandez, Jamie Malernee and Shannon O'Boye Staff Writers
Posted July 31 2003

POMPANO BEACH -- The son of a jewelry store owner shot and killed a
robber Wednesday after four men forced their way into the family store,
shot at the son and pointed a gun to his father's head.

Broward Sheriff's Office officials say two robbers were armed, and those
who survived escaped empty-handed. None of the victims inside -- the
son, his wife, father, and one employee of Jewelry Francy's and Fancy's
Fashion -- were hurt.

The incident was just the most recent robbery in a string of several
high-profile jewelry heists to strike South Florida.

Those inside the store were shaken by the experience long after law
enforcement officers arrived with deputies, dogs and a helicopter to
track the suspects, who remained at large.

"We're going to move from here," said a second son, Alfredo Guido, who
was not in the store during the robbery. "This already happened to us
once before. We're not waiting for it to happen again." He said the
family once owned a store in Mexico that was robbed.

Family members told police the four men were seen casing the store last
week.

"They were here a couple of days ago, said Maggie Guido, the owner's
daughter. "I guess they scoped out the place before they attempted to
rob it."

Those who were in the store declined to comment, but Tomas Mata, a
friend and neighboring business owner in the Cypress Village West
Shopping Center on Southwest Sixth Street, sat with them as they told
homicide detectives what happened.

The father and owner of the store, Alfredo "Rafael" Guido, was buzzing
in a client Wednesday morning when one of four masked men stuck his foot
in the door, Mata said.

Alfredo "Rafael" Guido's daughter-in-law, Francisca, screamed as the men
forced their way into the store and his son, Meliton, grabbed a 9 mm
handgun from under the counter and hid behind the cash register.

Then one of the four men pointed a gun at the father's head, Mata said.

The other armed man saw the son hiding with a gun. That man fired at the
son, who fired back. The robber missed, and the son's bullet hit a
different masked man who was not armed, Mata said.

The son yelled to his father, "Quick, jump behind the counter because
they're going to kill you!" He did, and the men then tried to run from
the store -- but couldn't because the store door had closed and only way
to leave was to be buzzed out. The son hit the buzzer, allowing the four
men to flee.

The man who was shot collapsed, bleeding, in front of the store while
the others escaped.

Eyewitness accounts

Maricela Deboissiere, who works in an accounting office next to the
jewelry store, had seen two men in a green car looking at the store
earlier in the day. From her office, she heard a "pop" and sounds of a
struggle.

"Another guy walked outside and said, `There´s a body over here! Call
911!´" Deboissiere said.
It was the passenger of the suspicious green car she had earlier seen
cruising the parking lot.

Business owner Michael Anderson also ran outside. He says he saw one man
run away from the store and another speed off in a car. He did not see a
third man.

Paramedics arrived and rushed the injured man to North Broward Medical
Center, where he died. The sheriff's office said they would not release
his name until notifying his next of kin.

Officials later found a green car, a Pontiac Grand Prix, abandoned in a
nearby residential neighborhood at the 200 block of Northwest 14th
Street and impounded it as possible evidence. The car's owner, a Margate
resident, said it was stolen earlier in the morning from a local repair
shop.

Comparing thefts

In addition to tracking down the suspects, Broward Sheriff's spokeswoman
Veda Coleman-Wright said detectives will be comparing the details of
Wednesday's robbery with a recent string of jewelry thefts in South
Florida. She said officials do not think the case is related to the June
28 heist at East Coast Jewelers in Deerfield Beach, in which masked men
stole $1 million in watches and jewelry.

Other recent thefts and robberies at jewelry stores include: $420,000 in
jewelry and cash taken from the Jewelry Exchange and David Morgan Fine
Arts west of Delray Beach on July 6 after thieves ripped holes in the
store ceiling and walls; thousands of dollars in merchandise stolen from
the Jewelry Exchange in Hollywood in late June; another break-in at
South Miami Jewelers by two armed robbers on June 19, and a man who held
up a Mayors Jewelry store at the Dadeland Mall on June 24.

Nor was Wednesday the first to turn deadly. In May, armed robbers killed
two owners of a jewelry store booth at the Opa-locka/Hialeah Flea
Market. In January, a Mayors jewelry store security guard at Merrick
Park mall in Coral Gables was murdered during a robbery.

Wednesday's shooting underscored a growing fear in Henry Siddique, who
works at a drive-thru convenience store a couple hundred yards from the
jewelry store, which also sells clothes and offers tailoring services.
He does not carry a gun, though he has been robbed two times at
different stores in the past eight years.

"I'm looking for another kind of job now," he said. "I always felt OK,
but in the past few months I'm very scared."

Robert Waters, an Ocala resident and author of two books about victims
who fight back, says thousands of people are opting each year to meet
violence with violence.

"A lot of business owners, especially those in a low-income area, know
they will be robbed and at some point make a decision to protect
themselves. They've planned this out in their mind and know what they
would do," Waters said. "I can't say which is right or wrong, but I
would not want to depend on an armed robber for mercy."

Whether the recent robberies signify a significant spike in the crime
rate or just a momentary blip remains unclear. Despite the seeming
increase, statistics show that robberies in Broward County, in general,
have plummeted since the 1994, when there were 4,458 reported according
to the National Archive of Criminal Justice. Last year, there were less
than 3,000 reported, according to the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement.

Jewelry heists have also dropped nationwide, according to statistics
kept by the Jewelers' Security Alliance, a non-profit trade association
based in New York that provides crime prevention information and
services to the jewelry industry. The number of crimes occurring at
jewelry retailers dropped by nearly 24 percent in the first quarter of
this year compared to 2002. The number of homicides resulting from such
incidents also fell, from 16 in the first quarter of 2002 to two deaths
between January and March of this year.

 

[PeteyPete]

We read stories like this almost every other day, and there are at least 6 or 7 each month that are printed in "The Armed Citizen", yet i've yet to see any of these stories on FoxNews, CNN, MSNBC or the mainstream news channels. Who picks the stories that are aired, and why the hell aren't people who protect themselves given the homage they deserve by the press?
:banghead: