80-YEAR OLD STORE OWNER +1. FOUR BAD GUYS -1

By Bob Walsh

 

                   Store owner Craig Cope, 80, watches outside security camera waiting with shotgun for robber to come in

               Armed robber moment before store owner fired his shotgun. The would-be robber ran out screaming "He shot my arm off."

 

The Norco Market and Liquor is a small store in Norco, CA operated by the owner, and 80-year old man.  He was working the graveyard ship on Sunday and is smart enough he has good cameras out front and a shotgun close to the register.  

He saw a black SUV back in to a handicapped parking spot in front of his store at 2:47 a.m. and and young man get out and roll a ski mask down over his face.  He promptly got into position behind some concealment and aimed at the front door.  A bad guy came in holding what appeared to be a fully tricked-out AR-15 into a Hollywood version of a combat ready position.  The owner opened fire.

The bad guy ran back to the car screaming "HE SHOT MY ARM OFF, HE SHOT MY ARM OFF" and jumped into the car, which took off.

The owner is not hurt.  All four suspects are in custody.  The owner suffered a heart attack right after the incident but it fortunately wasn't horribly serious.  Even though the bad guys appear to be Black and the owner is White he will probably be OK because he was using a "good" shotgun and the bad guys were using "evil" semi-automatic assault weapons.