No Charges After Worker Allegedly Shoots Would-Be Burglar At Jamaica Store
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The Queens District Attorney has decided not to prosecute a grocery store worker in the shooting death of a would-be burglar in Queens.
The 54-year-old worker was stocking shelves alone inside the Met Supermarket on Jamaica Avenue when two men cut a hole in the roof above the cash registers and lowered themselves inside the store around 2:15 a.m. Tuesday, reports 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria.
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The worker told police that one of the suspects came at him with a blunt object in hand. Police say the worker grabbed the store's registered shotgun and opened fire. One burglar was shot in the torso and pronounced dead at the scene. The other got away.
Manager Luis Rodriguez wouldn't give the name of the worker involved, but says he's a hero for protecting the store, while working alone overnight.
"Yeah, but it's, you know, it's a life. It's a tragedy. Not nice what happened," he told CBS 2's Derricke Dennis.
Roger Aiken came to repair the alarm after the siren wires were cut and says the worker was in the back of the store, heard the break-in, and waited.
"The alarm went off. The alarm went off 2 o'clock in the morning, thereabouts," he said. "Keeping low basically, until they tried to get into where he was I don't think they even knew he was there, and then it was protection. That's all it was."
The manager denies that the worker used the store's own weapon.
"The only gun we have is pricing gun to price the items," Rodriguez joked.
The store owner spent the day cleaning the debris and fixing the hole in the roof. The investigation is ongoing, but customers who spoke with CBS 2 were not surprised at the violence.
"Only thing is I feel like this place is becoming a little dangerous now, you know," one said.
"He could have shot the worker," another customer said.
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