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LEVITTOWN, Pa. » Police say a suburban Philadelphia pharmacy owner shot and killed a would-be robber wearing a Halloween mask and carrying a shotgun.
Falls Township police Lt. Henry Ward says the gunfire broke out just before 10 a.m. today at the Pennsbury Pharmacy. He says the gunman got out of the passenger seat of a minivan in the parking lot, walked in and went behind the store counter before the pharmacist fired nearly a dozen rounds at him.
Ward says the owner watched on his security camera as the man came into the store with a shotgun and he was prepared for him.
Police also arrested another man in the stolen van outside the pharmacy.
The story is silent as to whether the would-be robber threatened the pharmacist in any way. Despite my sympathy for victims of robbery and assault, if he did not, then the pharmacist could be looking at some legal trouble. Hopefully a video exists to answer that question.
I seriously doubt someone walking into a pharmacy wearing a mask and a shotgun in his/her hands is only stopping in to pick up his/her antidepressants at the counter. LOL I think we can safely assume this case will just be closed. Glad to hear the the assailant is dead, at least tax payers won’t have to foot the bill to feed and shelter him in prison. Not familiar with PA gun laws so the only issue the pharmacist might run into is whether the pharmacist had a legal right to have the weapon at the place of business to be used in self defense.
The story is clear on one point: the pharmacist was also the owner of the pharmacy, so of course he had a right to keep a gun there.
Still, whether he faces criminal or civil liability depends entirely on whether he was in reasonable fear for his life when he killed the robber. We don’t know from the paucity of details whether all the criteria for self-defense were met.