Sunday shooting leaves armed robber dead, two arrested
Grocery stores are a popular target for criminals but as News Five’s Marion Ali reports, in one such incident over the weekend, one shop owner fought back.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Around eleven-thirty on Sunday morning an armed robbery at forty-two Freetown Road ended in death. Police say the victim, twenty year old Jermaine Gomez, was one of three robbers who targeted Garden Grocery Shop and held up forty-two year old proprietor, Dennis Chow, and five customers.
Supt. Aaron Guzman, Officer Commanding C.I.B.
“They went in there and they did manage to get some monies in that robbery but it so happened that the proprietor and one of the customers defended their property and defended themselves. The young man Gomez was shot and he died.”
Police believe Gomez’s alleged accomplices were twenty year old Stephen Chuc and twenty-one year old Marvin Bradley. While Bradley and Chuc wore masks, Gomez didn’t hide his face. According to Officer in Charge of the Crimes Investigations Branch, Assistant Superintendent Aaron Guzman, thanks to surveillance video, police have strong evidence against the two remaining suspects.
Supt. Aaron Guzman
“The tape clearly shows the deceased and the other two young men entering the store. It shows one of them pointing a firearm, I believe it’s a nine millimeter, directly in the face of the proprietor and then turning on a customer, struggling with that customer and it shows that one of the two, the deceased and the other person, one of them stoning the customer who had their friend holding his hands. It was clear that that firearm that culprit had went off.”
That bullet didn’t kill Gomez. He was shot when Chow pulled out his licensed handgun and shot at the three thieves as they struggled with a customer. Police do not intend to charge Chow for Gomez’s death.
Supt. Aaron Guzman
“The feeling I get from discussions with the Commissioner and his opinion is that if you have a business and you go through the proper course of applying for your firearm, doing your vetting, you have some training in using that firearm and you have a safe place to keep that firearm, then more than likely you’ll be granted a firearms license.”
The incident has left other businesses on Freetown Road shaken. While Customs Broker at Benny’s Home Center, Delroy Fairweather declined to share his company’s security measures, he insists that the company is cognizant of the constant threats.
Delroy Fairweather, Customs Broker, Benny’s
“We have been doing the same thing over the years. We make sure that we protect ourselves every possible way we can. We just look out to the best of our abilities because it could happen to us at any different time.”
Marion Ali
“This one happened right up the street from where you guys were.”
Delroy Fairweather
“Yeah, right up the street; not too far.”
But for Gomez’s loved ones, his criminal practices is a surprise.
Lynn Armstrong, girlfriend of Jermaine Gomez
“Dehn come wake up ah out ah ih bed and den he gone with di boy dehn and dehn gone.”
Marion Ali
“So, you noh know weh happen really? Dehn dah ih friend or who dehn bwai weh come hail ah?”
Lynn Armstrong
“Dah ih friend dehn. Dah ih friend dehn, dah ih two friend dehn dat.”
Marion Ali
“You know dehn?”
Lynn Armstrong
“Yeah, I know two ah dehn, yeah.”
Marion Ali
“And dis dah something weh dehn normally do; fi di hold up place or rob place or just get inna trouble?”
Lynn Armstrong
“I noh so sure. I noh know deh like dat.”
Chuc and Bradley will be charged with Robbery, Attempted Robbery and Aggravated Assault and will be arraigned in court on Tuesday. Bradley will face additional charges of Murder in connection with the April twenty-second death of Christino Madrill. That charge is as a result of a statement police obtained following Sunday’s shooting in which the witness identified Bradley as the gunman that killed Madrill. Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.
