Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
On Father’s Day morning in suburban Detroit, a restaurant worker shot and killed a man attempting to commit armed robbery. Now, one of the customers who was in the restaurant at that time is describing the man as a hero.
According to ClickOnDetroit, around 9:30 AM, a man walked into Pete’s Grill and Coney Island, pulled out a gun, and announced that he planned to rob the business. Then a cook in the restaurant pulled out a weapon and shot the robber.
It’s not clear at this time whether the gun belonged to the worker or if it was obtained from somewhere inside the restaurant.
Here’s what Robert Felton, a customer inside the restaurant during the attempted robbery, said to a local news reporter after the incident:
“Next thing I know, I saw everybody getting down on the ground. This guy was robbing the place. He had the gun on everybody. He was telling everybody, ‘get to the register, I want the register.’
Next thing I know, I hear a bunch of gunshots.
It was a good thing, because the guy was threatening everybody. There had to be at least 20 people in the restaurant. The guy that works here, he’s a hero. He’s really a hero.”
A Detroit police detective at the scene didn’t comment on the specifics of the case but did say:
“When you are being threatened with a weapon and you face a split second decision, you make your decision based on the information you have in front of you at that moment.”
The use of a gun for self-defense rarely results in death. According to a just-released analysis of FBI data, in 2012, the most recent year that information is available, there were 259 justifiable homicides when a private citizen used a firearm.
The police have not concluded their investigation nor made any official statement about the attempted robbery.