It all began when the 37-year-old man, who chose to remain anonymous, went into a 7-Eleven in Virginia Beach for a Big Gulp. As he began walking to the counter, the red beam of a laser aiming device suddenly flashed into his drink, reported pilotonline.com.
“I’m sipping on my Big Gulp, and this red beam cuts into my drink,” the man told pilotonline.com. “I look down and I’ve got a pink drink with something orangish-red in there. Then I look up and there are two guys pretty much standing on top of each other with two guns pointed in my face.”
Police said the two gunmen were making the final stop in a rash of robberies that evening. Each wore hoods over their heads and bandanas over their faces. And each man had a gun, while two other customers, a man and woman, stood motionless. Meanwhile, one robber held his gun on the clerk. That’s when it got even more tense, according to pilotonline.com.
As the situation escalated and seemed more dire, the man had to make a choice. A concealed carrier, a shooter. Should he pull or not?
“I’m thinking about all of that and at the same time thinking, you’re supposed to have the right to bear arms, the right to protect yourself, the right to protect others if need be,” he said, according to pilotonline.com. “I’m like ‘Man, you say you believe in the Second Amendment. You say you believe in America. You know God’s got you.'”
7-Eleven Concealed Carrier Deemed a Hero
The man pulled his gun, first shooting the gunman behind the counter, striking him in the neck. Then he transitioned to the other gunman, putting two in his torso, killing the suspect. The man then kicked the gun away from the dead robber before moving behind the counter and doing the same to the other downed gunman.
He told the clerk to call the police, according to pilotonline.com. Then the gravity of the moment began to set in.
“You just shot and killed somebody in 7-Eleven,” the man said, according to pilotonline.com. “You just told these people to call the cops and they’re coming. [Now] you got to stand here and wait for them. Of course, you can’t be standing here with a gun in your hand. You’re a black man with a gun. You’ll probably get shot.”
Though police detained the man following the shooting, a week later authorities cleared him of any charges, according to pilotonline.com. And though the night brought with it a harsh reality, in the end, he knew that for him there was no other way.
“There’s definitely an emotional cost to this,” he said, reported pilotonline.com. “But I didn’t get the choice of leaving. I didn’t know what they were going to do. I was thinking, ‘If you don’t do this, you’re going to end up with a scar either way, as well as all these other people. Somebody’s going to lose either way.’”
The two 18-year-old suspects were identified as Michael Moore III, who died, and Ronald Brookins Jr., who survived with a gunshot wound to the neck.
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