LEVITTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA — When a minivan with New Jersey license plates backed up into the parking lot of a discount cigarette pharmacy in Pennsylvania, the owner of the shop likely suspected it was just New Jersey residents fleeing the insane sales tax. When one of the men stepped out of the vehicle with a shotgun, though, the owner realized he had a choice: defend his life or potentially die.
As Falls Township Police Lieutenant Henry Ward recounted for CBS 3 Philly, the owner acted precisely as he should have by shooting the man once the man was stupid enough to point his shotgun at him.
“The owner is in the pharmacy, sees the man coming in with the shotgun and the mask, figures out what’s going on. The employee is armed with a handgun inside the store. Once the perpetrator points the shotgun at the owner, the owner then begins to fire, striking the actor numerous times. He’s deceased inside the store.”
But, this is impossible. The deceases is clearly from New Jersey and thus has no access to firearms (*sarcasm*).
This goes on to highlight that being prepared to handle a potentially violent situation is nine-tenths of the battle. Thankfully, the owner lived in a state where owning a gun is a constitutionally protected right. If he had been located just across the border in New Jersey, he may not have had the ability to do the same thing.
These two criminals didn’t do a lot of pre-planning before the execution phase took a turn for the worst. The getaway driver either didn’t know or didn’t care that his buddy had just been gunned down mere feet away from where he was probably playing Angry Birds. He just sat there in complete ignorance until police arrived and apprehended him.
That was probably the best thing that could happen to that getaway driver, in hindsight. He’s probably too dumb to be in this line of work.
“The get-away driver is inside the van and must not have heard the shooting, and doesn’t realize that it just happened, the owner was then able to hit his armed holdup alarm and call 911 to say what happened. Our officers were on scene in under 2-minutes. They were able to surround the van out front. They took him into custody without incident.”
That’s a fantastic ending for an incident that could have turned way worse, way quicker had the owner not been prepared to defend himself accordingly. A person pointing a gun at you is a direct threat and you do have reason to fear for your life. The ability to protect yourself with a handgun or firearm of your own, especially at your place of business, is paramount.
Thank goodness Pennsylvania gets this. Unfortunately, New Jersey has yet to learn.