Well, Reading made the news again......................

[Gino]

READING, Pa. - A person described by police as a "private citizen" took matters into his own hands Monday, shooting to death a pair of masked robbery suspects armed with guns. Emergency dispatchers reported receiving multiple 911 calls around 2 p.m. Monday from the area of North 9th and Exeter streets, where the intersection meets Kutztown Road, in Reading. "I heard two boom booms," said Elvis West. "It sounded like gunshots." Quick Clicks Images: Reading shooting scene, investigation Officers converged on the area and quickly established a crime scene outside Krick's Korner, a convenience store at the busy intersection. "I knew somebody was hurt bad when I saw the cloth and rope around. I knew somebody had been shot," said West. Two men, both armed with guns and wearing masks, had just left the store with stolen cigarettes and lottery tickets when they were confronted by the "concerned citizen," telling both suspects that he was going to call police and advising them to stay where they were, said Berks County District Attorney John Adams. A brief scuffle ensued, during which the suspects pulled out their guns, Adams said. The citizen then pulled out his gun, for which he had a license to carry, and shot both suspects, said Adams, who personally reviewed surveillance video of the scene. "It is unusual, but it's certainly not unheard of," said Chief Bill Heim, Reading Police Dept. "We've had several occasions over the past few years where citizens have been in such situations." The man who fired the shots remained on the scene and surrendered his gun when officers arrived, said Adams, adding that he doesn't expect to file criminal charges because it appears the man "acted justifiably under the law." In the meantime, neighbors said they're upset by the events that unfolded Monday afternoon. "I have lived here since 1962," said Carmela Chipperfield. "Things are not like it used to be. A lot of changes. This man, trying to make a living, and he gets robbed." Adams and city police will hold a news conference to discuss details of the news conference at 6 p.m.

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This took place only a few blocks from our shop. When it happened, I was outside with our roofer and we both just looked around and had no idea what the loud noises were. Didn't sound like gun shots to us. Then all afternoon there were two helicopters just hovering around. That night on the news we finally had it figured out.

 

[fresh]

Robbery is bad, don't get me wrong, but we have law enforcement officers for a reason. The penalty for stealing smokes and lottery tickets shouldn't be your life.

 

[John Butto]

Elvis heard "two boom booms"
more at 11...http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=9312800

 

[Gino]

Robbery is bad, don't get me wrong, but we have law enforcement officers for a reason. The penalty for stealing smokes and lottery tickets shouldn't be your life.

Maybe you didn't see it wasn't written in this part, but what happened was the two alleged robbers were confronted by an innocent pedestrian and they turned while pulling their guns on him and he was quicker to the draw and more accurate than them, so I would sooner say, if you don't wanna be shot, don't be yielding a gun around in someone's face while threatening them bodily harm.

We have cops and law enforcement too, but it's not always there to protect the innocent, like in this case. They held a gun to the store owners head while making their demands.


I hafta agree, life is a hard thing to take, but robbery, in-home invasions, terrorizing home robberies and assault must be stopped and around here, it is getting so bad, everyone is doing it, so by arming yourself and protecting yourself, it makes the odds a little better for the victims. Hoodlums and cowardly robbers might think twice before doing some of these things if they know we're fighting back.

I live in the country and in the last two years within a mile radius of where I live there have been 17 crimes which involved some bad sh!t. People's homes are being cased and they will rob you when they know the people are gone or at least the man-of-the-house is gone. Within the last two weeks, there have been 3 home invasions... ALL less than 1/3 of a mile away. All they want is computers, copper, jewelery and cash..... and they'll kill ya lickity-split without batting an eyelash, so don't tell me killing 'em is too harsh.

My wife is now starting to carrying 100% at home as well as when on the go. We're getting a nice holster for her to wear around the house. We had hiding places around the house which could not be found unless you really know it was there, but I feel carrying round the clock is better. After the last two around the corner, she now agrees completely. We've been to the range more time this summer and fall, then I remember ever going. She has gotten to be quite the marksman/woman.

 

[John Butto]

What Gino sings around the house.
"When I feel my finger on your trigger, I know nobody can do me no harm, because, happiness is a warm gun, mama, bang bang shoot shoot."

 

[threeputt]

Could not agree with you more, Gino. Note to bad guys, "don't wave your guns around and threaten deadly force to others". "It's quite possible you will me met with deadly force". That's the score, deal with it.

 

[JBusch260]

Robbery is bad, don't get me wrong, but we have law enforcement officers for a reason. The penalty for stealing smokes and lottery tickets shouldn't be your life.

Reading the article, it wasn't the stealing that got them killed. It was their physical threats of harm, or death, to another person that costed them their lives.

 

[fresh]

"... when they were confronted by the "concerned citizen.""


I'm just saying, that "concerned citizen" didn't need to be involved in the incident. And Gino, in the 1.5 sq mile city I live in, there have been 7 homicides this year. SEVEN!! I have had many restless nights wondering if the popping noises in the alley are gunshots or firecrackers. I'm a concerned citizen, so you know what i do? CALL THE COPS.

Our country doesn't need vigilantes. You know why? Because there is always going to be someone with a bigger gun than yours, and when you take the law into your own hands, you can't expect it to simultaneously protect you.

 

[Locals Find!]

"... when they were confronted by the "concerned citizen.""


I'm just saying, that "concerned citizen" didn't need to be involved in the incident. And Gino, in the 1.5 sq mile city I live in, there have been 7 homicides this year. SEVEN!! I have had many restless nights wondering if the popping noises in the alley are gunshots or firecrackers. I'm a concerned citizen, so you know what i do? CALL THE COPS.

Our country doesn't need vigilantes. You know why? Because there is always going to be someone with a bigger gun than yours, and when you take the law into your own hands, you can't expect it to simultaneously protect you.

You sir, are very very uneducated on the history of this country. This country was founded on Concerned Citizens standing up and protecting there homes, their families, their communities, and their states.

So, you go ahead and call 911 when someone is holding your loved ones, your neighbors or anyone else at gunpoint. I sir, will be more than happy to engage them and put hot lead down range where it counts and send scum bags like that to sort it out with GOD.

 

[John Butto]

Adtechia, I think fresh might not be a Sir, and you do not need to get on the soapbox and spout off the liberty thing. We all have ideas on this subject and have feelings through circumstances that give different thoughts. We live in times where we can hear who got shot at 5 pm and see their pics at 6pm. It is a quick and fast communication world we live in.

 

[Locals Find!]

Adtechia, I think fresh might not be a Sir, and you do not need to get on the soapbox and spout off the liberty thing. We all have ideas on this subject and have feelings through circumstances that give different thoughts. We live in times where we can hear who got shot at 5 pm and see their pics at 6pm. It is a quick and fast communication world we live in.

John, I respect his/her right to not engage a criminal. I encourage most untrained civilians to NOT engage. However, calling an apparently well trained, civilian who engaged armed criminals who threatened that persons life by drawing down on em, a vigilante I find issue with. We need vigilantes in this world sometimes. Law enforcement is not always available and for good reason. We don't want to live in a police state with cops ever 10 feet watching our every move.

I applaud people who are willing to put it all on the line like that civilian did and, stand up to defend himself and others. That is a true HERO in my book. They weren't paid to do that, they didn't stand by and let it happen. They didn't say, "Hey not my problem". I would like to see more people in this world have that kind of attitude and do the right thing because, it's the "Right Thing" to do.

 

[BobM]

Robbery is bad, don't get me wrong, but we have law enforcement officers for a reason. The penalty for stealing smokes and lottery tickets shouldn't be your life.

There are now two less scumbags out there putting people in fear for their lives over some smokes and scratch tickets. This is not" video game world", this is real life and death things going on. The next guy who wants to rob a store may think about it as being life threatening. You should get what you give in this life, those two guys got what they tried to give.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there must be some kind of tracking system used by the lottery commission to know what stores issues which tickets no? So what happens if one of the stolen tickets turns out to be a winner?

 

[chester215]

I wonder how many robberies, etc. the two masked men had committed before this and were never caught.
Sometimes you get what you deserve. (If we all got what we deserved we would all probably be in trouble.)
It sounds harsh but sometimes you need to look at the big picture.
Maybe this citizen saved some lives by stopping future crimes by these two.
Either way I agree with what he did.

 

[ironsinthefire]

Bigger doesn't matter

"... when they were confronted by the "concerned citizen.""


I'm just saying, that "concerned citizen" didn't need to be involved in the incident. And Gino, in the 1.5 sq mile city I live in, there have been 7 homicides this year. SEVEN!! I have had many restless nights wondering if the popping noises in the alley are gunshots or firecrackers. I'm a concerned citizen, so you know what i do? CALL THE COPS.

Our country doesn't need vigilantes. You know why? Because there is always going to be someone with a bigger gun than yours, and when you take the law into your own hands, you can't expect it to simultaneously protect you.

You say, "you can't expect it to simultaneously protect you," but you can't expect the cops to instantaneously protect you. Calling the police is perfect...if you can. One would guess "concerned citizen" would not be spared physical harm if he had looked at the 2 robbers and said, "hold that thought guys, let me call the cops. They will be here in a minute (or 10 or 30) and they will handle this. So don't shoot me until they get here." More times that not victims are not given the opportunity to access their phone and get a call out anyway.
Also, yes someone will always have a bigger gun than mine. That doesn't matter. What matters is that I am faster and more accurate. Response times for law enforcement in general are too slow to help in situations like these. (Not blaming them, they can't be everywhere.) For those of us in rural areas response time is especially slow due to a small number of officers covering huge areas including back roads that are difficult to maneuver at high speeds and wildlife as speed bumps.
If someone comes in my house with ill intentions you better believe I will drop them in a heartbeat instead of sitting around, calling the law, and waiting to see if the idiot is going to hurt my children while I wait for the police to pull in the drive. My husband supports my opinions on this subject

 

[ironsinthefire]

Speed

Adtechia, I think fresh might not be a Sir, and you do not need to get on the soapbox and spout off the liberty thing. We all have ideas on this subject and have feelings through circumstances that give different thoughts. We live in times where we can hear who got shot at 5 pm and see their pics at 6pm. It is a quick and fast communication world we live in.

Communication may be "quick and fast" but law enforcement response times (by no fault of their own) may not be quick or fast.

 

[rjssigns]

Robbery is bad, don't get me wrong, but we have law enforcement officers for a reason. The penalty for stealing smokes and lottery tickets shouldn't be your life.

So what you're saying it was OK for those two model citizens to put on masks and point guns at an innocent store owner. Gotcha.

And it wasn't smokes and lottery tickets. One of the guys was a drug addict and was behind on his child support payments. Instead of trying to get cleaned up and get a job to support his child he decided to ruin other peoples lives.

But but but, they were both perfect angels just out having some fun, no wait they got in with the wrong crowd, no wait they were starting to turn their life around...

 

[ddarlak]

Robbery is bad, don't get me wrong, but we have law enforcement officers for a reason. The penalty for stealing smokes and lottery tickets shouldn't be your life.

COMPLETELY DISAGREE, These dead young outstanding criminals deserved the bullets they got. There are plenty of people in this world, we could do with a lot less of these characters.

Completely justified shooting, completely satisfied citizen here....

 

[Gino]

"... when they were confronted by the "concerned citizen.""


I'm just saying, that "concerned citizen" didn't need to be involved in the incident. And Gino, in the 1.5 sq mile city I live in, there have been 7 homicides this year. SEVEN!! I have had many restless nights wondering if the popping noises in the alley are gunshots or firecrackers. I'm a concerned citizen, so you know what i do? CALL THE COPS.

Our country doesn't need vigilantes. You know why? Because there is always going to be someone with a bigger gun than yours, and when you take the law into your own hands, you can't expect it to simultaneously protect you.

I live in a very rural area. Not many houses. Probably more farmland than anything, so that count is way too high in my opinion. In Reading proper, the crimes rate is just about 500, which is basically 3 or 4 times what other cities it's size is. Reading has led the country in crime, killings and casings per year many times in the last 20 years or so. It's basically a War Zone. Larger cities like Philly, DC or whatever are high, but people are cramped in next to each other and you can't help but have a higher rate.

Now, here's a little tidbit of information that may help you sleep better with all the chaos in your area. It helps to call the cops if it's not you in direct danger, but when someone is pointing a gun at you or has a knife at your throat.... no speed dial or any kinda phone call is gonna help you.

There was an old lady in her house one night..... true story. Heard unfamiliar noises in her house. She got her gun and hid on the floor in the corner by her bed as she called the 9-1-1 people. They told her to sit tight and do nothing that Police were on their way. The Police got there within a few minutes and she was dead... lying in the corner in a heap of blood. She did exactly what they told her to do..... NOTHING. If that's your cup-a-tea, so be it, but it ain't mine.

 

[threeputt]

"... when they were confronted by the "concerned citizen.""


I'm just saying, that "concerned citizen" didn't need to be involved in the incident. I'm a concerned citizen, so you know what i do? CALL THE COPS.

Our country doesn't need vigilantes.

I'm willing to bet you that if you and your family (my assumption) were in a mall and someone began to shoot the place up, and you saw a "concerned citizen" stand up, pull out his (legally owned and carried) gun and stop the threat, you'd be very, very grateful. (all the while your cell phone was dialing 911.) So let's not get too high on the horse. When it's real, when it's your kids and wife (husband) threatened... you'd want some protection, and would be damn glad someone was willing to rise up.

 

[player]

In Canada no guns = no gun violence.

I guess it is too late for you guys as everyone has a gun, and every one is killing each other.