When it got deadly, so did he.

Morris Brown of Williamsburg, Virginia, was attacked in the city of Newport News by three men. They robbed him, and they beat him, but when it looked as if they might kill him, he opened fire.

It was 1:30 a.m. and Brown had just dropped off a friend at an apartment complex when three men came toward him, two from the front and one from behind. At first, they asked him for drugs, but then they told him they were robbing him. When the three began grabbing Brown's personal possessions and beating him, he physically resisted and hit back.

Then one of the attackers pulled a gun, and so Brown gave in. When the three had taken what they wanted, they began to walk away, but they just couldn't let it end there. The robber with the gun turned and faced Brown and pointed the gun toward him. Brown, who has a concealed-carry permit, yanked out his own pistol and began firing.

The three robbers fled, but not unscathed. Robber Zovek Martinez was hit in the back and leg and collapsed a short distance away (he later died), and Michael Highsmith was struck in the arm. Highsmith was arrested for robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony after he sought treatment at a nearby hospital. The third man, the gunman, is still at large.

According to the Daily Press, police have deemed the July 14 shooting to be justifiable homicide.