An armed and vigilant couple in Texas got into a blazing wild-west shootout with a pair of equally equipped banditos at the local fueling station. One of the thieves was wounded enough for police to haul away to the hospital in cuffs. Nobody else was harmed.
Armed robbers meet vigilant couple
It seems that everyone in Texas runs around armed these days. The police can’t be everywhere but the bad guys are, so there’s a real need to take the law into your own hands. Only, of course, in self-defense and under the proper circumstances.
The incident happened June 27 about 5:30 p.m. at a Texaco station in north Houston. An alert and unidentified woman in the parking lot spotted “two men get out of separate cars with guns.”
She was armed and so was her husband, inside the store at the time. She used her phone, “to alert him of the danger,” officers relate. “While the two suspects were trying to rob the place, one of the men threatened to kill the husband and hit him with a pistol.”
"The suspect, identified as 39-year-old Mario Ipina Duque"
They never say if these are illegal immigrants.
— All_Purpose_Hak 🇺🇲 (@HakHinton) June 29, 2023
That was when “a gunfight broke out.” One of the banditos “fled in a green Dodge Charger.” The other wasn’t so lucky.
Mario Ipina Duque “was shot multiple times.” By the time police decided to stop by, “they found the couple, who had called 911, holding the wounded suspect at gunpoint.”
The department notes “he is currently hospitalized in police custody.” His armed amigo remains loose in the community. Police are going over the surveillance clips and looking for the probably stolen Dodge.
Acted in self-defense
After the gun battle, the vigilantly armed couple were questioned at the scene and their weapons were taken to the station for ballistics. As far as their actions, they might just get a certificate of award.
They don’t have to worry about any charges because they clearly “shot Duque in self-defense.” Apparently, he was shot by both of them.
Mario won’t be robbing any gas stations for a while. He’s going to be in the hospital for quite a long time after what the armed vigilantes did to him.
Charges filed against gas station robbery suspect shot by husband, wife Houston police identify the man as Mario Ipina Duque, 39. The couple told police he threatened them with a gun so both of them shot him. https://t.co/qcDu1OFelF
— Eligio Del Awiizotl (@EligioAwiizotl) June 28, 2023
When he gets out, he’ll be a guest of the Houston Police Department until the judge decides his fate from there.
The armed assailant was formally charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful carrying of a weapon.
It’s too early for him to have a lawyer yet and first they need to make sure he survives before they wheel him in front of a judge for an initial appearance.
