In Gun free NY, Damned if you do , damned if you don't..... The results of gun control!
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(NY) Two robberies, two different results 05-27-03
New York Post Online Edition: news
Address:http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/76911.htm
DEADLY DILEMMA
By DOUGLAS MONTERO, JOE McGURK and ANDY GELLER
IN CUSTODY:
Bodega employee Jos. Acosta is taken into Central Booking after
would-be robber was slain.
- William C. Lopez
May 28, 2003 -- One Harlem bodega clerk used an unlicensed gun to kill
a robber and is facing charges. Another didn't - and is dead.
This is the cruel dilemma facing thousands of bodega employees in the
city's high-crime areas, said Jos. Fernandez, head of a 7,000-member
association of grocery owners.
"We have to choose between going to jail for having an illegal weapon or
protecting our lives," he said.
Fernandez spoke after Mohamed Dramy, 40, a clerk at a St. Nicholas
Avenue bodega, was shot in the chest and killed in a robbery try
yesterday afternoon.
Dramy had just returned from his native Gambia, where he'd gotten
married. A second man was left bound with duct tape.
On Sunday night, Jos. Acosta, 69, who works in a Frederick Douglass
Boulevard bodega, escaped a similar fate when he pulled out a
.22-caliber gun and fatally wounded one of three masked holdup men.
But the gun was unlicensed, so the ex-Dominican Republic cop and
fellow employee Victor Alejandro, 23, were charged with fourth-degree
criminal possession of a weapon. After arraignment last night, the men
were freed on $5,000 bail.
"Acosta is facing charges for trying to save his life, while someone who
was complying with the law is now dead and leaves a family crying," said
Fernandez, president of the Washington Heights-based Bodega Association
of the United States.
"We have to make the decision whether to save ourselves or go to jail."
Fernandez hopes to meet with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to work out a
plan to make it easier for store owners in high-crime areas to get gun
permits.
Acosta shot Army deserter Luquarn Washington, 19, during a botched
stickup at the Leonel Mini Mart on Frederick Douglass Boulevard between
131st and 132nd streets.
Cops haven't recovered Washington's gun, but The Post learned it fell
out of his clothes when pals tried to help him.
After fleeing the bodega, Washington ran into a dead end at 130th Street
and Frederick Douglass, where he met up with his pals, witnesses said.
The 19-year-old collapsed on the sidewalk, and two buddies picked him up
to take him to a nearby apartment building.
As they did, the gun and a wallet fell out of his clothes. A third pal
grabbed the gun and ran to the building, the witnesses said.
Acosta's son, Jos. Jr., said his father has been shuttling between
Harlem and the Dominican Republic for the last six years, trying to earn
money to build a house and open a restaurant back home.
"I guarantee my father did not want to do this, but what would have
happened if it was the other way around?" the son said.
The son claimed his father didn't own or carry a gun and he didn't know
who owned the weapon.
The bodega's owner, Alberto Campocano, 45, said he wasn't aware any of
his employees were packing guns.
But he said, "In that moment, I would do the same thing. It's about your
life or someone else's."
=====================================
(NY) Two robberies, two different results 05-27-03
New York Post Online Edition: news
Address:http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/76911.htm
DEADLY DILEMMA
By DOUGLAS MONTERO, JOE McGURK and ANDY GELLER
IN CUSTODY:
Bodega employee Jos. Acosta is taken into Central Booking after
would-be robber was slain.
- William C. Lopez
May 28, 2003 -- One Harlem bodega clerk used an unlicensed gun to kill
a robber and is facing charges. Another didn't - and is dead.
This is the cruel dilemma facing thousands of bodega employees in the
city's high-crime areas, said Jos. Fernandez, head of a 7,000-member
association of grocery owners.
"We have to choose between going to jail for having an illegal weapon or
protecting our lives," he said.
Fernandez spoke after Mohamed Dramy, 40, a clerk at a St. Nicholas
Avenue bodega, was shot in the chest and killed in a robbery try
yesterday afternoon.
Dramy had just returned from his native Gambia, where he'd gotten
married. A second man was left bound with duct tape.
On Sunday night, Jos. Acosta, 69, who works in a Frederick Douglass
Boulevard bodega, escaped a similar fate when he pulled out a
.22-caliber gun and fatally wounded one of three masked holdup men.
But the gun was unlicensed, so the ex-Dominican Republic cop and
fellow employee Victor Alejandro, 23, were charged with fourth-degree
criminal possession of a weapon. After arraignment last night, the men
were freed on $5,000 bail.
"Acosta is facing charges for trying to save his life, while someone who
was complying with the law is now dead and leaves a family crying," said
Fernandez, president of the Washington Heights-based Bodega Association
of the United States.
"We have to make the decision whether to save ourselves or go to jail."
Fernandez hopes to meet with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to work out a
plan to make it easier for store owners in high-crime areas to get gun
permits.
Acosta shot Army deserter Luquarn Washington, 19, during a botched
stickup at the Leonel Mini Mart on Frederick Douglass Boulevard between
131st and 132nd streets.
Cops haven't recovered Washington's gun, but The Post learned it fell
out of his clothes when pals tried to help him.
After fleeing the bodega, Washington ran into a dead end at 130th Street
and Frederick Douglass, where he met up with his pals, witnesses said.
The 19-year-old collapsed on the sidewalk, and two buddies picked him up
to take him to a nearby apartment building.
As they did, the gun and a wallet fell out of his clothes. A third pal
grabbed the gun and ran to the building, the witnesses said.
Acosta's son, Jos. Jr., said his father has been shuttling between
Harlem and the Dominican Republic for the last six years, trying to earn
money to build a house and open a restaurant back home.
"I guarantee my father did not want to do this, but what would have
happened if it was the other way around?" the son said.
The son claimed his father didn't own or carry a gun and he didn't know
who owned the weapon.
The bodega's owner, Alberto Campocano, 45, said he wasn't aware any of
his employees were packing guns.
But he said, "In that moment, I would do the same thing. It's about your
life or someone else's."
