An armed robbery suspect allegedly picked the wrong clerk in Tampa, Florida, was shot and held at gunpoint early Friday morning.
Police determined after the fact that the suspect was using a fake gun. The clerk’s gun was real.
WFLA reports that the suspect allegedly entered the Sunoco around 2 am with a handgun and demanded money. The clerk responded by pulling his own gun and opening fire, shooting the robbery suspect in the leg.
The suspect then fled the Sunoco and collapsed in the parking lot of a nearby Shell station. The clerk stood nearby and held the suspect at gunpoint until police arrived.
Tampa Police Department Lt. Ricardo Urbinas commented on the incident, saying, “This is sort of typical self-defense stuff. If somebody’s threatening you with a firearm, anybody — a clerk, the general public — you have a right to defend yourself. And you can use deadly force if you’re faced with deadly force.”
Police determined the robbery suspect’s weapon was either “a BB gun or pellet gun.” He is expected to survive.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.