Green Energy There have been a lot of shootings in the news recently. Here's a righteous one, from one of the rougher sections of my hometown this afternoon.
Reading Eagle:
Robbers of Reading store shot dead, police say
Two masked men who allegedly robbed a Reading convenience store at gunpoint were shot dead on the sidewalk by an armed man who stumbled upon the scene Monday, police said.
Police said the two suspects, who have not yet been identified, entered Krick's Korner at Ninth and Exeter streets about 2 p.m., pointed guns at the store owner and demanded cash.
It was unclear if the men got any cash but police said they fled the store with lottery tickets and cigarettes and ran into a man who was leaving an apartment located in the same building as the store.
"He came outside and heard the clerk and knew something was wrong," said Reading police Sgt. John M. Solecki.
District Attorney John T. Adams said that he didn't expect criminal charges to be filed against the man who shot the suspects. Adams said the man had a weapons permit and was within his legal right to shoot the suspects. Adams said he used deadly force before deadly force could be used on him.
The man noticed that the suspects were armed and wearing masks, so he decided to wait outside the store, police said. When the suspects exited the store the man pulled out his own weapon and shot the two men.
One suspect, wearing black sweat pants, a red sweat suit-type jacket and a tan mask, fell dead in a crosswalk just outside the front door of the store. The second suspect, dressed in all black and still wearing a mask, ran about 20 feet south on Moss Street before collapsing in the street.
Carmella Chipperfield, who lives nearby, said robberies are common at the store and she sympathizes with the store's owner.
"That poor man," she said, referring to the owner. "He's very nice and he gets robbed a lot. He's just trying to make a living and this happens."
Chipperfield said her son was visiting her and ran outside when he heard what he thought were shots, then heard sirens.