A Connecticut store clerk fatally shot a suspected robber Thursday night after he was shot in the back.
The incident unfolded in East Hartford at the clothing store Humble & Paid Co., around 10:30 p.m., when two men wearing black ski masks entered the store “with the intention of committing a robbery,” according to the East Hartford Police.
Authorities say a “brief struggle took place between the store clerk and one of the suspects who pulled out a firearm” and shot the clerk in the back. Luckily, the clerk was “able to return fire with two of his legally registered firearms, striking one of the suspects several times,” police said.
Feb. 2, 2023: Police in Hartford, CT, say that two armed, masked robbers burst into a store and shot the clerk in his low back. The clerk, however, was able to retrieve one of two firearms in his possession and returned fire, fatally striking one suspect.https://t.co/tbSLJFpdku
— Defensive Gun Use Tracker (@DailyDGU) February 4, 2023
Authorities arrived on scene and performed life-saving measures on the suspect before he was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. The clerk was shot once in the lower back and was treated on scene before being taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. (RELATED: ‘He Shot My Arm Off!’: Elderly Liquor Store Owner Stops Robbery)
Police say the second suspect, who has not been identified, ran out of the building during the initial struggle and is still on the loose.
Navdeep Singh, who manages one of the neighboring stores, told Fox 61 this incident seems to be the first of its kind.
“It’s a very decent area, don’t get me wrong besides from this. This is like the first time that I know anything like this happened here.”