Clerk foils robbery.Shortly before 8 p.m. on March 24 in the Queens, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , town of Jamaica, Ramon Food Market clerk Edwin Marte was watching television during a lull in business. Just then a man, later identified as Devin Keitt, entered the bodega bo·de·ga n. 1. A small grocery store, sometimes combined with a wineshop, in certain Hispanic communities. 2. A warehouse for the storage of wine. , donned a black ski mask, and shouted, "Holdup!" several times. Marte quickly pulled a .38-caliber revolver from under the counter and pointed it at the thug. He later told Newsday, "We pointed guns at each other. He got scared and I got scared ... I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what his intention was but I didn't want to kill him." Marte heard three clicks as Keitt tried to fire his weapon. Then Marte pulled the trigger of his own gun once, but in the turmoil did not realize that he had hit Keitt. In fact, the frightened clerk momentarily thought that he himself may have been shot. Then he saw the magazine from the gunman's firearm fall to the floor, alter which Keitt turned and fled, knocking over a shelf of snacks on the way out. "He ran off like a madman," Marte recalled for Newsday. Marte's bullet had found its mark, entering behind Keitt's ear and exiting the back of his head (but missing his brain). The wounded man Wounded Man in English, 傷追い人 (Kizuoibito) in Japanese, is a seinen manga written by Kazuo Koike and drawn in a Gekiga style by artist Ryoichi Ikegami. ran about a block-and-a-half before collapsing. He was taken to a local medical center in stable condition and was expected to survive. He faces attempted robbery, menacing and weapon violation charges that could bring up to 15 years in prison. At the time of the robbery attempt, he was on parole, having been conditionally released by parole officials last September after serving more than three years for possession of stolen property. Incredible as it may seem, the store clerk was himself charged with misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon. As News-day reported on March 25, "Police and prosecutors ... say that while it is clear Marie was defending himself when he shot Devin Keitt ... he did not have a license to use the .38-caliber revolver." If convicted, he faced up to one year in jail. The March 26 New York Post The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and the oldest to have been published continually as a daily.[3] Since 1976, it has been owned by Australian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and is one of the 10 reported Queens District Attorney Richard Brown's preliminary finding that Marie had indeed "acted in self-defense (Law) in protection of self, - it being permitted in law to a party on whom a grave wrong is attempted to resist the wrong, even at the peril of the life of the assailiant. - Wharton. See also: Self-defense ." Otherwise, he would have been charged with an even more serious crime. Public support for the beleaguered be·lea·guer tr.v. be·lea·guered, be·lea·guer·ing, be·lea·guers 1. To harass; beset: We are beleaguered by problems. 2. To surround with troops; besiege. clerk quickly developed. Andres Veras, a Queens bodega owner who was shot by robbers in March while his nine-year-old daughter looked on, praised Matte and asked rhetorically, "What are you supposed to do, wait until they kill you?" Gerry Free, a regular Ramon Food Market customer, told News day, "I stand on his behalf. The guy is a good guy. Yeah, I feel they should let him go." And Fernando Mateo Fernando Mateo (b. 1959) is President of Hispanics Across America and the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers. Although born in The Dominican Republic, he spent most of his youth in New York City. , president of the Latino business advocacy group Hispanics Across America, escorted Matte from court following his March 25 arraignment A criminal proceeding at which the defendant is officially called before a court of competent jurisdiction, informed of the offense charged in the complaint, information, indictment, or other charging document, and asked to enter a plea of guilty, not guilty, or as otherwise permitted . "Mr. Marte is not a criminal," Mateo told reporters. "He's a hero." On April 6, Queens prosecutors had second thoughts and dropped the gun charge against Marte. |
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