An armed burglar was shot dead trying to loot a South Philadelphia gun store amid the chaos that ensued during the George Floyd riots.
According to Fox29, the shooting happened “approximately 4:11 a.m. on the 1500 block of Front Street in the Pennsport section of the city.”
The deadly failed robbery reportedly happened at Firing Line Inc when the owner was keeping guard of the store following an attempted break in on Sunday night.
The owner saw a small group of armed robbers attempt to make it into the store on the premises’ surveillance camera and heard them coming up the store stairs before he dealt with the intruders.
One man was shot and pronounced dead at the scene while the others dispersed. A man, believed to be part of the armed group of burglars, was hospitalized in the area with a gunshot wound to the shoulder.
Speaking with Fox29, Chief Inspector Scott Smalls said: “One of the individuals that broke into the property, pointed a handgun at him.
“And that’s when the store owner fired his own weapon — striking the one perpetrator at least one time in the head and he collapsed, dropping his gun between his legs.”
This comes as several other store owners have taken matters into their own hands as authorities are stretched to the limit with the wave of violence to befall major American cities.
A pawn shop owner killed a suspected looter fleeing his store in Minneapolis on the first night of rioting.
In Rochester, New York, a store owner dispersed a group of would-be looters when he pulled up to his store and brandished a pump-action shotgun before opening fire on a group of young men attempting to break into his establishment.
A store owner, reportedly in California, pulled a carbine on a prostrate looter who had broken into his store. The looter, cowering on the floor, was pleading with the enraged store owner to be merciful.
