A delivery driver with a concealed carry permit saved lives of his pizza shop co-workers while ending the life of a would-be armed robber. His assailant’s partner in crime escaped, for now. With police department budgets cut to the bone, citizens have no choice but take the law into their own hands.
Always carry a gun
The gunfight erupted at a Papa John’s in New Carlisle, Ohio, just after 11 p.m. on Sunday, June 20.
Two “armed men in face masks attempted to rob” the restaurant “but the armed delivery driver drew his concealed carry firearm and fired at the suspects, killing one while the second suspect fled the scene.” That’s the short version.
After the brief but decisive battle, the employees diligently called 911 to report the shooting. “Someone just broke in and they were shot in self-defense,” the unnamed pizza maker reported. “They came right in with weapons and tried to rob us. They’re still in here.” Well, one of them at least.
“There’s one shot and wounded on the floor. One of them ran out.” The one on the floor wasn’t doing real well. Many states offer concealed weapon permits and many others allow open carry without a permit. With the state of police funding and liberal insurrection, every citizen is urged to exercise their rights under the Second Amendment.
“They had weapons. The one’s got a big crowbar, the other one had what looked like a knife. And they were sprinting toward us,” the caller told police. “It looked like a knife or like hedge clippers or something.”
“They came sprinting in and ran up on us fast.” His young life was flashing before his eyes, then he realized the flash was coming from the muzzle of the concealed carry weapon their delivery driver just unloaded at the attackers. He gave his story too, but not to the dispatcher.
Too upset to talk
“I’m too upset to talk right now,” the concealed carry permit holder told a patient operator. “I’m willing to cooperate when you get here. I don’t have the firearm in my hand.” Calmly, the “911 operator advised the two employees present during the attempted robbery to remain in the building and provide aid to the wounded suspect.”
They’re pizza makers, not paramedics but they did their best. Gage Melton was 21 years old. They told the dispatcher trying to talk them through first aid that “they didn’t have enough clean towels to stop the bleeding.”
The next question from the dispatcher was where the gun was. The first employee explained “He still has it, do you need him to put it somewhere?”
She had them carry it over to the counter so the police could see it easily when they finally got there. “I just need to know where it’s at. Where’s he putting it at?” The employee replied, “It’s right on the open when you first walk in the door on the front counter.”
The sheriff’s office is still out searching for the accomplice. Legal expert Tom Hagel notes that from the details released, the “shooting was justified, particularly given that the robbers were wielding deadly weapons.” Hagel relates that if “you have a lawful right to be where you’re at, you can stand your ground and use deadly force in response to a threat of deadly force.”
Whether you carry a weapon openly or concealed is affected by state laws but “If he [the shooter] is being threatened with serious bodily harm or death, and it is presumed that is happening, if he is being victimized as a victim of an armed robbery, it’s assumed they’re threatening his safety, then he can use deadly force without any duty to run away.”
