Convenience Store Clerk Shoots Robber - - Update

The clerk decided to play at being the Compassionate Gunfighter:

Around 11:30 a.m. Thursday an armed man demanded that the clerk, Mark Headstrong, hand over money from the register.

This is the third time a robber has tried to steal from him.

But this time he pulled out a gun and told the robber to drop his weapon. When the robber continued to point his gun, Headstrong said he shot at the floor and the bullet ricocheted into the man's leg. When the robber still wouldn't drop his gun, Headstrong shot him in the finger.

"I had to protect myself," he said. "And he said, ‘Please don't call the cops. Just call my girlfriend.'"

There's a couple of broken rules right there. You don't fire warning shots, because you can't guarantee where your bullet will go after it leave the gun, and you're responsible for where it goes. If it hits an innocent bystander, you can be arrested for negligent homicide or even manslaughter. Another rule is that you don't shoot to wound, you shoot to stop. You've been lucky so far that the robbers you faced only wanted cash; one of them might get kicks out of taking life, and you should not trust the good intentions of a robber.

And, of course, the police trot out the usual tripe about being a Good Victim:

Crockett pointed out that one of the lessons taught in robbery-prevention training is to comply with an armed robber.

"The advice is the same whether we're discussing robbery from persons or commercial robbery. No amount of money or property is worth the potential loss of life," she said. "Many companies even have written policies instructing their employees to meet the demands of an armed robber."