Clerk foils robbery.

Shortly before 8 p.m. on March 24 in the Queens, New York, 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, 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 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 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 reported Queens District Attorney Richard Brown's preliminary finding that Marie had indeed "acted in self-defense." Otherwise, he would have been charged with an even more serious crime.

Public support for the beleaguered 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, president of the Latino business advocacy group Hispanics Across America, escorted Matte from court following his March 25 arraignment. "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.