Miramar Shop Owner Fights Back Against Armed Robbers
MIRAMAR (CBS4) - Miramar Police are looking for at least three people in connection to a store robbery Monday morning.
Two of them held-up the store while another is believed to have waited in the getaway vehicle, according to police.
In this case, the owner of Sam's West Indian Store along University Drive fought back. He fired several shots, injuring one of the robbers, police said.
"I wasn't about to lay down," Earl "Sam" Morrison explained. "I fought with them for a while and they knocked me out."
Morrison sustained a bloody lip and swelling to the right side of his face following the altercation with two men inside his shop Monday.
"They were at the cooler and they followed me up to the register," Morrison said. "By the time I turned around the gun was on me."
Morrison was roughed up and pistol-whipped. At one point he said he was knocked out cold, but when he came to, he said he fought back.
"I didn't want them to know I was armed," Morrison said. "I was calm enough that they didn't find that out."
He fired at the robbers, according to police.
Surveillance video shows one man stumbling through the store.
A trail of blood is proof Morrison's aim was spot on.
"This man is a family man," Morrison's friend Garnett Campbell said. "So many people depend on him and this very store. It's a life saver for everybody."
But Monday, the store that's been open for more than 20 years was shuttered for the day, as Miramar police brought in a K-9 to investigate.
Friends and customers stopped by to check on Morrison. Many were understanding of his decision to defend himself.
"Let's face it," friend Ed Barnes said. "In this day and age, no one wants to lose what is theirs."
An employee at a nearby auto parts shop, Jonathan Rodriguez, said he heard several gunshots.
"Times are hard. but you don't have to be robbing, shooting people," Rodriguez said. "He's a good guy. He has a family. He didn't deserve that."
Morrison's friends are relieved he's okay.
"He was blessed not to be shot," Campbell said. "Not to get hurt more than what happened to him there, and possibly dead."
Miramar Police said the robbers ran out with cash but dropped some outside.
The fled to a waiting newer model Burugndy Cadillac CTS with a spare tire in the front seat.
Anyone with information should contact Broward Crimestoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
