'Hero' 7-Eleven customer with gun foils robbery bid as he shoots one suspect and seriously wounds another
A 7-Eleven customer, who is being touted as a "good guy with a gun," fatally shot one of the men who was trying to rob the establishment at which he was shopping.
Two robbers, who have been identified as Michael Moore, Ronald Lee Brookins Jr., and Deric Breon Simmons, walked into a store in Virginia Beach around 2 a.m. on Thursday and demanded money. According to a bystander, Barrie Engel, the young men asked the shoppers to stay where they were, not move. While most shocked and scared customers followed the order, a man who was carrying a legal gun “confronted and ultimately shot” the suspects.
Engel told the Virginian -Pilot that the man claimed, "Nobody's gonna point a gun at me and get away with it," after shooting three to four bullets. While 18-year-old Moore died in the store, Brookins Jr. was injured during the confrontation and reportedly requested for help. Not long after, the cops arrived and took him, along with Simmons into custody.
The police believe that this was at least the fifth 7-Eleven in the area that the trio held up in a matter of hours, another one being in Virginia Beach, two in Norfolk and one more in Newport News. They carried out their operations in all other places, with clerks complying and the customers cooperating. No one was injured, the cops said.
The man who shot the robbers has not been identified - at least publicly by the police - and he has not been charged with murder or for use of firearms as of Friday, accordingly to police spokeswoman Tonya Pierce. Brookins, meanwhile, has been charged with abduction, wearing a mask in public, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and conspiracy to commit a felony, and Simmons has been charged with two counts of robbery and gun charges. They are both in police custody as of Friday.