A suspected robber in Philadelphia was reportedly shot and killed on Tuesday morning after a customer took his gun and managed to hit him.
According to Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small, around 1:00 a.m., 35th district officers responded to reports of two shooting victims in the smoke shop on the 5300 block of 5th Street. While responding to the first call, the officers received another call for a shooting victim inside a car on W Olney Avenue.
At the time the officers responded to the smoke shop, no victims were found inside, however, it was clear that there was a shooting scene because of the spent shell casings and blood.
The suspect allegedly went into the smoke shop in Philadelphia's Olney neighborhood armed with a gun while a pair of men were withdrawing cash out of an ATM inside the shop. One of the men at the ATM, a 45-year-old, "pulled a Bruce Lee move" on the suspect and managed to get his gun and shoot the suspect. The 45-year-old accidentally shot his 36-year-old friend in the shoulder during the incident.
The officers then found an unresponsive shooting victim in the passenger seat of a Toyota car, matching the robbery suspect's description, with gunshot wounds to the groin and thigh. He was pronounced dead around 1:15 a.m. The Toyota where the man was found was reportedly stolen from the 24th District.
"We believe while that robbery was taking place someone fired shots striking the perpetrator who was the male inside the Toyota who was pronounced dead," Small said. "That's our preliminary information."
A 36-year-old man with a gunshot wound in the shoulder, reportedly arrived at the hospital. He was also shot inside the smoke shop on 5th Street, according to authorities. The incident was caught on camera inside the smoke shop. The 36-year-old shooting victim, alongside his 45-year-old friend, are now cooperating with authorities.
"At this point, we believe there was a robbery inside the smoke shop. Possibly the tables were turned on the robber and that's when the robber got shot and he was able to get in this Toyota in the passenger seat who was driven two-and-a-half blocks," Small stated. Meanwhile, smoke shop employees were behind a partition in the shop and were not involved in the shooting.
Police officials are still looking for the person who drove the Toyota from the smoke shop and abandoned the deceased shooting victim. No arrests have been made and the case is still active and under investigation.
