Clerk Fires on ATM Robbery Gang, Then Loses His Job Anyway

A gas-station clerk in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, opened fire on an armed gang trying to rip an ATM out of the store, and American Rifleman's latest Armed Citizen® roundup pairs that case with a 1987 grocery-store shooting in Milwaukee.

Snapshot

American Rifleman's Nov. 9 Armed Citizen® feature covers a Nov. 2 overnight attempted ATM robbery at an Ohio gas station, where the clerk fired after suspects rushed him, plus an archival 1987 case where a Milwaukee grocer shot an attacker who had already robbed two other stores. Both cases show a store employee or owner stopping an active threat at the moment it turned on them.

Key points

• The trigger moment: The clerk told reporters he didn't feel endangered until the suspects, after repeatedly ramming the storefront with a stolen minivan to dislodge the ATM, rushed toward him inside the store.
• Outcome: All suspects fled; a 25-year-old was later arrested on foot and charged with robbery, vandalism and receiving stolen property, and police tied him to a known criminal gang.
• Personal cost: The clerk said he fired to protect himself, coworkers and the store, but he lost his job as a result of the incident.
• Archive case: In 1987, Milwaukee grocer Jamal Masoed was beaten with a piece of concrete by a man who had already hit two other stores; Masoed grabbed a handgun from under the counter and fired twice, critically wounding his attacker.

Quick take

Both incidents involve store employees who had no advance warning and reacted only once the threat was physically on top of them, a pattern that recurs across American Rifleman's long-running Armed Citizen® series. The Ohio case also underscores a less-discussed cost of defensive shootings for workers: even a clean legal outcome didn't save the clerk's job.

Read the full story: americanrifleman.org