“Anybody in my place would have done what I do,” said a recent armed robbery victim. Or so you’d hope. At least anyone would as long as he lives in a place where it’s still legal to do what he did (who knows how many rounds he may have had in his assault pistol) with the tool he used. The “he” in this case is Smail Gueddari, owner of a Hamilton, Ohio clothing store called Mazagan Urban Ware. He was in the back of his shop with his child last Saturday when he heard his wife scream from the front. Jeremy Irvin had just strolled in with a mask on his face and a gun in his hand . . .
From Journal-News.com:
Gueddari said after he came out of the back room, the suspect fired one shot at him. The bullet went through two mannequins before lodging in a wall behind Gueddari.
The store owner said he then fired two shots, one of which found its target.
It sure did. Probably center of mass, too, because 5-O found him on the ground outside the store. The only thing Irvin is taking right now is space in the local morgue.
Gueddari’s store had been robbed twice before. A clerk at a nearby cigar store (that had been held up previously, too) had some advice for local merchants.
“I’d say having a weapon or a gun might be mandatory,” he said. “It doesn’t feel safe. Even if you were to give the money over, who knows what would happen to you?”
True enough. There’s no way to know what an armed miscreant might do to eliminate a witness. Or just because. Better safe than sorry.