A Bronx bodega employee who allegedly shot an armed robber with a gun he “discovered” within the retailer’s rest room is dealing with felony prices — however advocates are calling him a hero.
Jhonny Gomez Cordero, 56, was manning the counter at his Melrose bodega on Nov. 28 when a pair of masked and armed bandits allegedly stormed in to rob the place — solely to have one among them get shot within the foot with a gun Cordero claims he stumbled into within the rest room earlier.
Cops mentioned the gun is prohibited and hit Cordero with weapons prices, whereas supporters name it self-defense.
“We’re going to battle these prices,” Fernando Mateo, a rep for United Bodegas of America, mentioned at a press convention Wednesday. “And we’re going to ensure that Jhonny Gomez is a free man and he’s not charged with something felony.
“Look, he’s acquired a enterprise to run,” Mateo mentioned. “He’s acquired 4 children to help. He’s acquired a spouse. He’s acquired a church. , this can be a man of Christ. A person of God, a person, a hard-working particular person.”
In accordance with a felony criticism, the safety digicam at Mi Gerizin Market captured the motion.
“Defendant pointed a firearm in direction of a person recognized to the New York Metropolis Police Division and discharged such firearm,” the criticism mentioned. “Deponent states that upon reviewing video surveillance, deponent noticed one muzzle flash and heard what gave the impression to be the sound of a firearm.”
The wounded man was hit within the leg and was taken to an area hospital with non-life threatening accidents, in response to the doc.
Mateo conceded that Cordero had not utilized for a pistol allow, however maintains that the small enterprise proprietor merely came across the weapon by pure probability.
“Whenever you go into your bodega and also you permit everybody to make use of your rest room, use your facility, you by no means know what they’re going to depart within the rest room,” he mentioned. “And on this explicit case somebody dropped a gun within the rest room. And it might need saved the lives of all of the people who find themselves within the bodega.
“And it might need saved his life,” Mateo added. “As a result of if that gun wasn’t there he wouldn’t have been in a position to defend the individuals within the bodega.”
The incident is simply the newest instance of bloodshed at Huge Apple bodegas.
Among the many most notable was the July 1, 2022, deadly stabbing at a Manhattan bodega that quickly led to homicide prices towards retailer clerk Jose Alba.
Alba stabbed and killed 35-year-old Austin Simon after the youthful and bigger man stormed behind the counter and cornered the clerk, at one level shoving him laborious right into a shelf.
Manhattan prosecutors later dropped the costs towards Alba, ruling the incident self-defense.
In July of this yr, a bodega employee in Rego Park, Queens, was taken into custody after a person was fatally stabbed throughout a battle over beer at a Queens Boulevard min mart.
Police later revealed that the sufferer, Dylan Marino, 21, tried to strangle the bodega employee from behind after he tried to stroll out of the shop with out paying.
In October, 29-year-old Bronx mother Gwendolyn Guyton was stabbed to demise by one other lady inside a bodega on Southern Boulevard, with Guyton stabbed within the neck and torso a number of occasions.
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