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Store robber runs into one tough customer
By CHRISTINE VENDEL
The Kansas City Star
“Open the register before someone gets hurt!” shouted the robber, who at the time probably wasn’t including himself in the list of possible someones.
But it was the robber who got clobbered Tuesday night at a Kansas City discount store.
A teenage customer who “thought it was his duty” attacked the thief, disarmed him and beat him when he refused to surrender.
The 6-foot-1-inch boy said he was not afraid of the 5-foot-5-inch robber, whom the boy outweighed by 95 pounds.
“Not at all,” Tyler Williams, 17, said Wednesday as he recounted the incident, which also was detailed in a police report.
He had driven to a Dollar General Store at 7009 Bannister Road, about 1½ miles from his house, to buy candy for a cousin. It was 7:40 p.m. He left his mother, Darinda Williams, in the car.
Williams selected a bouquet of Charms Blow Pops and walked to the counter. He noticed a hooded man with his hand in his pocket. The man announced a robbery. Williams tried to leave.
“If you go out, they get shot,” the robber said, referring to two cashiers and two customers, all women.
A cashier provided money from one register, but a second register was empty. The robber ordered everyone to the store’s rear so he could steal from the safe. When the robber entered a back room with one cashier, Williams told the customers and the other cashier to leave.
When the robber reappeared, Williams punched him in the face, then threw more punches. The robber smacked him in the head with a tire iron.
“My adrenaline was running so high, I didn’t feel it at the moment,” Williams said.
He wrestled the robber to the floor, pressed his knee into his abdomen and ripped free the tire iron. The robber kept fighting, so Williams hit him with the tire iron. The robber clawed at Williams, bit his hand, grabbed his shirt and tried to pull him to the floor.
“I tried to choke him out a little bit so he would slow down,” Williams said.
Meanwhile, Williams’ mother, who saw the robbery’s beginnings from the car, drove to a nearby drugstore and asked someone to call 911. Having seen the robber escort everyone toward the rear, she feared what was happening.
“I was terrified,” she said. “I didn’t know if he had a gun.”
Officers found Williams holding a tire iron and standing over a bloody man on the floor. When the officers mistakenly handcuffed Williams, the injured man jumped up and ran. Officers chased him two blocks and arrested him.
The 48-year-old man needed eight staples to close head wounds.
The officers apologized to Williams, who also went to a hospital, where doctors checked a bump on his head, scratch marks to his chest, and bite marks to his right hand. They treated him with antibiotics.
Williams, who, his parents said, earns As and Bs as a high school junior, did not regret getting involved.
“Yes, I would do it again,” he said. “I’m the type of person who’s going to stick up for anybody.”
His mother, however, does not want a repeat performance.
“It’s too dangerous,” she said. But she added, “I’m proud of Tyler, and I’m glad he’s OK.”
Jackson County prosecutors charged Robert G. Shinault of Kansas City with two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of armed criminal action Wednesday for the Bannister Road holdup and one earlier Tuesday at another Dollar General.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/13769430.htm
now, that's one 17-year old I don't think I would have a problem with being armed.
By CHRISTINE VENDEL
The Kansas City Star
“Open the register before someone gets hurt!” shouted the robber, who at the time probably wasn’t including himself in the list of possible someones.
But it was the robber who got clobbered Tuesday night at a Kansas City discount store.
A teenage customer who “thought it was his duty” attacked the thief, disarmed him and beat him when he refused to surrender.
The 6-foot-1-inch boy said he was not afraid of the 5-foot-5-inch robber, whom the boy outweighed by 95 pounds.
“Not at all,” Tyler Williams, 17, said Wednesday as he recounted the incident, which also was detailed in a police report.
He had driven to a Dollar General Store at 7009 Bannister Road, about 1½ miles from his house, to buy candy for a cousin. It was 7:40 p.m. He left his mother, Darinda Williams, in the car.
Williams selected a bouquet of Charms Blow Pops and walked to the counter. He noticed a hooded man with his hand in his pocket. The man announced a robbery. Williams tried to leave.
“If you go out, they get shot,” the robber said, referring to two cashiers and two customers, all women.
A cashier provided money from one register, but a second register was empty. The robber ordered everyone to the store’s rear so he could steal from the safe. When the robber entered a back room with one cashier, Williams told the customers and the other cashier to leave.
When the robber reappeared, Williams punched him in the face, then threw more punches. The robber smacked him in the head with a tire iron.
“My adrenaline was running so high, I didn’t feel it at the moment,” Williams said.
He wrestled the robber to the floor, pressed his knee into his abdomen and ripped free the tire iron. The robber kept fighting, so Williams hit him with the tire iron. The robber clawed at Williams, bit his hand, grabbed his shirt and tried to pull him to the floor.
“I tried to choke him out a little bit so he would slow down,” Williams said.
Meanwhile, Williams’ mother, who saw the robbery’s beginnings from the car, drove to a nearby drugstore and asked someone to call 911. Having seen the robber escort everyone toward the rear, she feared what was happening.
“I was terrified,” she said. “I didn’t know if he had a gun.”
Officers found Williams holding a tire iron and standing over a bloody man on the floor. When the officers mistakenly handcuffed Williams, the injured man jumped up and ran. Officers chased him two blocks and arrested him.
The 48-year-old man needed eight staples to close head wounds.
The officers apologized to Williams, who also went to a hospital, where doctors checked a bump on his head, scratch marks to his chest, and bite marks to his right hand. They treated him with antibiotics.
Williams, who, his parents said, earns As and Bs as a high school junior, did not regret getting involved.
“Yes, I would do it again,” he said. “I’m the type of person who’s going to stick up for anybody.”
His mother, however, does not want a repeat performance.
“It’s too dangerous,” she said. But she added, “I’m proud of Tyler, and I’m glad he’s OK.”
Jackson County prosecutors charged Robert G. Shinault of Kansas City with two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of armed criminal action Wednesday for the Bannister Road holdup and one earlier Tuesday at another Dollar General.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/13769430.htm
now, that's one 17-year old I don't think I would have a problem with being armed.
