South Florida Store Clerks Defending Their Stores Against Robbery

The Miami New Times reports that store clerks in South Florida have been fighting back against armed robbers. An incident on July 20 at a Honduran grocery store in Miami involved a 20-year-old who held customers and a manager at gunpoint, demanding the contents of the cash register and cartons of cigarettes.

A 24-year-old manager pulled a .38 on the would-be robber, who sustained a bullet to the chest as he ran away. A few steps beyond the store, he flopped onto the wet asphalt and died in what police called a “justifiable homicide.” Governor Jeb Bush’s 2005 “Stand Your Ground” law backs up that ruling by extending legal protection to victims of violent crime who shoot at their aggressors before trying to make peace.

A few more examples of store clerks turned vigilantes: In 2007, a clerk at a Super Stop in Pembroke Pines pulled a handgun on two armed robbers and killed one. The following month, a clerk at OG’c Corner Urban Wear in Oakland Park shot a 17-year-old robber. The list goes on, but this certainly represents an interesting new trend in South Florida crime.

South Florida Store Clerks Go Vigilante, Miami New Times, August 4, 2009
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