From WLS AM Dot Com
Pawnshop owner protects himself with gun
A convicted felon was shot to death as he tried to rob a Northwest Side pawnshop Tuesday afternoon — the third incident involving a citizen shooting an assailant in the city in the past two weeks.
The man killed was identified as Michael McMillan, 24, of 309 N. Menard Ave., according to a spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. McMillan was pronounced dead at Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center at 1:17 p.m., the spokesman said.
The slain suspect was convicted in 2006 of armed robbery and sentenced to boot camp, court records show.
Police sources said the owner of Fullerton Pawners Inc. shot the robber at about 1 p.m. inside the store. Two accomplices, one wearing a black backpack, ran away. One may have been wounded, sources said.
Police have recovered a revolver they believe the slain robber was wielding, sources said.
Joseph Barats, president of the store at 5900 W. Fullerton Ave., declined comment. On a YouTube video, Barats said the store is family-owned. He took over the business about five years ago, he says in the video.
“We have the nicest stuff,” he says. “We are like the real pawn stars. Every day something is happening here.”
Police were reviewing video of the incident, taken from a surveillance camera in the store, sources said.
Detectives also were interviewing witnesses Tuesday night to determine if any charges should be brought against the shooter — including charges involving the city’s handgun ban.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on the constitutionality of Chicago’s longstanding ban. Already, members of the gun lobby have pointed to two earlier incidents as reasons to lift it.
On June 3, a 27-year-old South Austin man shot and wounded a man who jumped through the window of a home as he was running away from police officers during a drug bust. And on May 26, an 80-year-old Korean War veteran shot and killed a suspected burglar at his home in East Garfield Park. The veteran was robbed at gunpoint last year, his family said.
Neither resident was charged with violating the handgun ban. In both instances, the slain robbers were convicted felons.
–Sun-Times Media Wire, Chicago Sun-Times
Tags: Armed Robbery, Chicago, consumer credit, Pawn Loans, pawnbroker, pawnshop
Your blog is so informative ¡ keep up the good work!!!!
It was good to see the Supreme Court overturn the Chicago ban today.Reasonable gun control needs to exisit to keep it from being too easy for criminals to get their hands on weapons, but the average ciitzen should never be denied their right to possess weapons.