Two of four would-be robbers were shot and killed by a Florida jewelry store owner after at least one of the suspects brandished a weapon while the group proceeded to ransack the store. The store owner opened fire after one of the suspect’s jumped behind the counter, at which point he fatally shot him and fatally wounded another.
One of the four suspects was killed at the scene while the other three fled, police say. Police later located a vehicle not far from the scene and found another one of the four suspects suffering from a gunshot wound. He was transported to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead not long after arrival.
The attempted robbery took place at an Orlando shopping plaza shortly after 11:45 a.m. on Friday. A customer described the scene to WESH 2, saying that “Jewelry was all around him. Some jewelry was out still.”
“People were already gone and dead by the time the cops had got here,” he added.
A mall vendor named Peter Lopez described the scene, saying that one of the suspects jumped behind the counter before he was shot. “One of them got shot. He’s dead behind the counter. The other one, they left in a car and he’s up on Tampa Avenue, he died as well.”
“I mean, this was a robbery. And the owner had a firearm, so he defended it,” he added.
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The owner was left unharmed and is cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation, which is very much ongoing, officials said. Police are currently reviewing surveillance footage and interviewing witnesses in order to apprehend the two additional suspects who are still at large.
