For the second time since 2010, a World War II veteran was forced to shoot a would-be armed robber at his Florida jewelry store.
Lennard Jarvis, 44, attempted to rob The Jewelry Exchange in Lake Park on Saturday afternoon.
But when the gun-wielding man approached 89-year-old Arthur Lewis in the store, the decorated vet pulled out his own .38-caliber handgun, the Palm Beach Post reported.
The two struggled before Lewis was able to fire off six shots, four of which hit Jarvis in the chest. Even after sustaining the wounds, Lewis told the newspaper that Jarvis continued to fight.
Lewis suffered a graze wound to the arm, the Post reported.
“I thought he was going to kill me as soon as I saw the gun,” Lewis told the Post. “I thought, ‘This time, I’m dead.'”
Lewis, who acknowledged that his line of work is “a hazardous business,” has been in a similar situation before.
In Jan. 2010 another would-be robber fired at him from point-blank range but missed. Lewis fired five shots of his own. The man was arrested and no one was injured, according to the Palm Beach Post.
During Saturday’s incident Lewis said he allowed Jarvis to exit the store at which point an accomplice drove him to the hospital.
Jarvis has been arrested 20 times since 1989, according to the Post. He now faces charges of armed robbery, armed burglary, felon in possession of a firearm and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
His accomplice faces charges as well.
“People think because he’s 89, he’s frail,” Lewis’s girlfriend, Vivien Bresnahan, told the Post. “That irritates me because he’s anything but [frail].”