CLEVELAND, OHIO — A Cleveland man with a concealed carry permit was able to return fire briefly after being the victim of an attempted armed robbery. According to the sequence of events released through Cleveland.com, the concealed carrier allegedly heard a man walk behind him and say, “give me everything.” This occurred in vicinity of 3:30 am — so it’s dark and it’s hard to quickly react to an opponent approaching from behind. He managed to get some distance when he was allegedly shot in the shoulder with a .22 LR bullet. He returned one shot with his .40 S&W pistol before the suspect fled the scene.
The victim had his sister pick him up and take him home briefly to deposit his handgun before going to a medical center to seek aid. Police came and questioned him on the sequence of events but he appears to have changed his story a few times in relation to where he was robbed.
No arrests have been made and it looks like this concealed carrier is going to make a full recovery. Police recovered a .22 LR and .40 S&W shell casing at the scene, corroborating the victim’s account.
The moral of this story: if you’re unsure of the account you want to give to police, make sure to consult an attorney first. It sounds like this concealed carrier didn’t do anything wrong but the way he relayed that information to police may cause some confusion. In most cases, the police aren’t looking to make you into a bad guy but if your recollection ends up begging more questions than it is answering, you’re going to have a rough time.
We can’t be too harsh on the guy for taking a round before being able to return fire. In a lot of cases of defensive gun use, the responsible party will often seek to flee and failing that, aim judiciously. This is a very hard thing to do at 3:30 am in a darkened section of Cleveland let alone in broad daylight conditions.
Hopefully, the guy makes a speedy recovery and has a little more situational awareness the next time he’s out and about.