VIRGINIA BEACH
A quick stop at 7-Eleven for a Big Gulp and some nachos in the middle of the night went sideways for Barrie Engel.
In a matter of minutes she was on the ground, covering her head and praying she wouldn't get shot.
First, there were the robbers — masked and armed. Police believe it was at least the fifth 7-Eleven in the area the pair held up in a matter of hours.
Then came the gunshots.
But it wasn't the robbers who fired their guns. It was a bystander in the back of the store who pulled out his.
When the chaos began at 2:10 a.m., Engel, who owns Coastal Cafe down the street, was waiting with her friend near the cash register. The store was nearly empty.
"Two gentlemen — armed, masked, robbers — came in the store with their guns up and told us to stay where we were, nobody move," she said.
"I did exactly that, I pretty much froze and looked at my friend and he looked at me, wondering, 'Is this really happening? Is this real?' "
It was real.
One of the masked men stayed near the door while the other went behind the counter and started putting money in his pockets, Engel said.
"I was looking right at him (the robber) and then I looked at the clerk, and the clerk raised his hands and said 'Come on, man, don't do this.' And not sooner than he said that, I heard a gunshot and as soon as I heard the gunshot, I dropped down to the ground and put my hands over my head and started praying because I thought the guy shot the clerk," she said.
"After that shot it was like three shots, bam, then bam bam. It could have been two, two or three."
Engel and her friend looked at each other, and then she saw the man standing beside them. He said to her, "Nobody's gonna point a gun at me and get away with it." That's when she realized he was the one who fired.
As she surveyed the gruesome scene around her, Engel saw one masked man lying on the floor, dead, and the other behind the counter asking for help after having been seriously injured. "I was shaking in my boots," she said.
Not long after, police showed up.
At the four other 7-Eleven robberies in the area — another in Virginia Beach, two in Norfolk and one in Newport News — police said the two men and an accomplice walked in with masks and guns and demanded money, just like on South Newtown Road. The clerks in the other incidents complied and no one was injured, police said.
Police have not said whether they'll charge the bystander. Charges are pending against the men in custody — both the one who was shot and another police found nearby and said they believe was involved.
The names of the man who died and the one injured have not yet been released by police. The shooter's name will only be released if he is charged, police said.
Virginia Beach police spokeswoman Tonya Pierce said she could only recall one other local incident where a bystander fired at someone committing a crime.
That was in June 2017, when a clerk at a 7-Eleven on Kellam Road shot an armed robber in the neck. Davin McClenney was left paralyzed by the incident. He pleaded guilty earlier this month to that robbery and one other and is awaiting sentencing.
The 7-Eleven clerk in that case was not charged.
In a similar incident in October 2018 in Birmingham, Ala., a father and his two sons were leaving a McDonald's late at night when a masked man entered and began firing. The father shot and killed the gunman. He and one of his teenage sons were injured, but both recovered. The shooting was later determined to be justified and the father was not charged, said Sgt. Johnny Williams, a Birmingham police spokesman.
In May 2018 in Oklahoma City, a 28-year-old man drove to a restaurant during the dinner rush and began firing, injuring three people. He was shot and killed by two bystanders - one a former police officer and the other a member of the Oklahoma Air National Guard - who were nearby and ran to the scene with their guns. Prosecutors investigated for three weeks before announcing that neither man would be charged, according to a story in The Washington Post.
Engel said she's just thankful she got out of the 7-Eleven alive. She called her son, a recent Kempsville High School graduate, immediately afterward, then went home to hug him.
She said that before Thursday, she had been considering getting a concealed carry permit. Now she thinks she would have been too nervous to use a gun.
She wants to know who saved them.
"Thank God for that guy because who knows what could have happened," she said. "I want to thank that guy personally. I want to buy him a steak dinner."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/piloto...a0cf9740-aec3-11e9-88bf-2f1269721a1b.amp.html
A quick stop at 7-Eleven for a Big Gulp and some nachos in the middle of the night went sideways for Barrie Engel.
In a matter of minutes she was on the ground, covering her head and praying she wouldn't get shot.
First, there were the robbers — masked and armed. Police believe it was at least the fifth 7-Eleven in the area the pair held up in a matter of hours.
Then came the gunshots.
But it wasn't the robbers who fired their guns. It was a bystander in the back of the store who pulled out his.
When the chaos began at 2:10 a.m., Engel, who owns Coastal Cafe down the street, was waiting with her friend near the cash register. The store was nearly empty.
"Two gentlemen — armed, masked, robbers — came in the store with their guns up and told us to stay where we were, nobody move," she said.
"I did exactly that, I pretty much froze and looked at my friend and he looked at me, wondering, 'Is this really happening? Is this real?' "
It was real.
One of the masked men stayed near the door while the other went behind the counter and started putting money in his pockets, Engel said.
"I was looking right at him (the robber) and then I looked at the clerk, and the clerk raised his hands and said 'Come on, man, don't do this.' And not sooner than he said that, I heard a gunshot and as soon as I heard the gunshot, I dropped down to the ground and put my hands over my head and started praying because I thought the guy shot the clerk," she said.
"After that shot it was like three shots, bam, then bam bam. It could have been two, two or three."
Engel and her friend looked at each other, and then she saw the man standing beside them. He said to her, "Nobody's gonna point a gun at me and get away with it." That's when she realized he was the one who fired.
As she surveyed the gruesome scene around her, Engel saw one masked man lying on the floor, dead, and the other behind the counter asking for help after having been seriously injured. "I was shaking in my boots," she said.
Not long after, police showed up.
At the four other 7-Eleven robberies in the area — another in Virginia Beach, two in Norfolk and one in Newport News — police said the two men and an accomplice walked in with masks and guns and demanded money, just like on South Newtown Road. The clerks in the other incidents complied and no one was injured, police said.
Police have not said whether they'll charge the bystander. Charges are pending against the men in custody — both the one who was shot and another police found nearby and said they believe was involved.
The names of the man who died and the one injured have not yet been released by police. The shooter's name will only be released if he is charged, police said.
Virginia Beach police spokeswoman Tonya Pierce said she could only recall one other local incident where a bystander fired at someone committing a crime.
That was in June 2017, when a clerk at a 7-Eleven on Kellam Road shot an armed robber in the neck. Davin McClenney was left paralyzed by the incident. He pleaded guilty earlier this month to that robbery and one other and is awaiting sentencing.
The 7-Eleven clerk in that case was not charged.
In a similar incident in October 2018 in Birmingham, Ala., a father and his two sons were leaving a McDonald's late at night when a masked man entered and began firing. The father shot and killed the gunman. He and one of his teenage sons were injured, but both recovered. The shooting was later determined to be justified and the father was not charged, said Sgt. Johnny Williams, a Birmingham police spokesman.
In May 2018 in Oklahoma City, a 28-year-old man drove to a restaurant during the dinner rush and began firing, injuring three people. He was shot and killed by two bystanders - one a former police officer and the other a member of the Oklahoma Air National Guard - who were nearby and ran to the scene with their guns. Prosecutors investigated for three weeks before announcing that neither man would be charged, according to a story in The Washington Post.
Engel said she's just thankful she got out of the 7-Eleven alive. She called her son, a recent Kempsville High School graduate, immediately afterward, then went home to hug him.
She said that before Thursday, she had been considering getting a concealed carry permit. Now she thinks she would have been too nervous to use a gun.
She wants to know who saved them.
"Thank God for that guy because who knows what could have happened," she said. "I want to thank that guy personally. I want to buy him a steak dinner."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/piloto...a0cf9740-aec3-11e9-88bf-2f1269721a1b.amp.html
