An armed masked man stormed into a Houston tanqueria late Thursday evening and demanded money and valuables from the shop and its customers. While the robber walked around the joint, waiving a pistol and greedily grabbing up loot, one customer accessed his handy-dandy personal safety tool.
When the thief walked by again, the man shot the criminal. Repeatedly. Including five times while the suspect was down on the ground motionless. He was later pronounced dead right there.
The masked man, it seems, brought a toy gun to a robbery. Specifically, a plastic airsoft gun according to local news reports. Not that the armed defender had any way of knowing that when he opened fire. That was enough for a reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm.
Here’s the full unedited security video (with audio) . . .
KHOU has more . . .
It happened just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday at the restaurant on S. Gessner near Bellaire Boulevard.
Houston police said the armed man in a mask came inside the restaurant, demanding money and wallets from customers. However, as he was leaving, one of those customers shot the suspect.
The incident was caught on surveillance video.
The customer who shot the robber left the scene and the HPD would like to talk to him.
Investigators said he is wanted for questioning for his role in the shooting. He has not been identified and is not charged at this time.
Oh, and it gets better.
The shooter collected the stolen money from the robber and returned it to the other patrons, police said. Then the rest of the people in the restaurant left the scene before the police arrived.
Again…the robbery victim with the gun took the time to return the stolen money to the patrons.
On one hand, it’s generally better to call police and stick around after a defensive gun use. On the other hand, can anyone really blame him for wanting to skip the grilling by police and prosecutors for doing the right thing to a guy who threatened peoples’ lives for a quick score of a few dollars?
With good images of the defender, he’s likely to eventually be identified. But Houston’s district attorney won’t make any friends in the community if she charges the man for defending his life and those of everyone else in that restaurant. Stay tuned.
