how the AP fills their stories with unnecessary imagery.

“He died in the hands of God,” said a neighborhood resident, Vincent Gayle, pointing to the blood-spattered pavement by the church. “But what goes around comes around.”

It is ridiculous for the writer of that article to try and portray the armed robbers as victims who were gunned down in the course of an armed robbery as if it was just some quaint custom that urban kids partake in as a right of passage.
” Oh come on…who hasn’t robbed a shop keeper or two when they were a kid…?”
The writer makes it sound like they were shot for just spray painting grafitti.

If that’s an accurate quote, it’s time for the reporter and his/her editor to return to 1st grade.

I grew up in a big city and I never understood it then and I don’t understand it now. They are usually healthy young men too, they are the strongest and most energetic out of the whole population. It upset me in high school and it still upsets me.
Great Diary Lori!

disapproval of the media for defending his life and that of his employees. I wouldn’t have given them the time of day myself, but he was good enough to grant them an interview. He was completely correct in not telling them a single further detail about his mode of protecting himself. That’s not “coy”, that’s just wisdom in the face of stupidity.

I’m not wishing misfortune or harm on anyone, but I’d be interested in knowing just how “coy” that shopkeeper would appear if one of the news crew had been in the store shopping when the thugs showed up.

“You can mess with other people’s stuff but don’t go messing with mine!” – Volume 10

OK, I definitely sanitized that a bit… Thankfully, Mr Augusto is not a WASP, or we’d never hear the end of it.

I’ll echo others itt, I can not understand the sympathy people have for criminals, outside of maybe those in their immediate family.

And even then, had I as a youngster been killed while using a gun to rob a neighborhood business, my family would’ve been devastated no doubt, but they also would’ve fallen all over themselves apologizing to my intended victim.

Just unbelievable. Mr Augusto and his employees probably know people who know some of the robbers. This wasn’t a Do The Right Thing or Bernie Goetz’ 5th shot, or the mythical “guy from the Hamptons exploiting the inner city”. The intended victims were neighbors, friends & family, and they all easily could’ve been murdered. Simply incredible.

And LOL at the “zomg pools of blood near Clinton’s office”. Just unreal, people have to be indoctrinated or ordered to write this way. Not even Prof Gates could think Mr Augusto acted wrong here.

The story was obviously written by culling information from other stories and then putting the anti-gun spin on it.

Some of the information in the story is factually incorrect, for instance citing the lack of a permit for the shotgun. In fact, the shotgun had a permit. Even the Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, has come out and publicly stated this was a legal shooting.

The perps were career criminals preying upon the people of Harlem.

This guy is a hero and not because of this shooting. He has worked at the store he now owns for over 50 years. He started working there as a young man and later bought it from the owners. He kept the store in Harlem, even through the bad days, when crime and violence were an epidemic throughout the NYC, especially in Harlem. In so doing, he has provided jobs to local residents, including the employee who was being pistol whipped during the attempted robbery.

The NYC press, which is notoriously liberal, has generally been positive in its coverage of this incident. Nobody has made any commentary about the fact that Gus is white and the perps were black youths. Everyone knows this was a good and necessary shooting. Had he not acted, there’s a good chance everyone in the store would have been killed by these mutant criminal scum.

I chalk this one up to natural selection. Only an idiot would try to rob a store named The Blue Flame.

(Or maybe I’m not, but I know that’s what you all will think)

…I’m not entirely sure that a pistol whipping and a demand for cash warrants a lethal response. Yes, what they were doing was reprehensible, but they hurt someone (non-lethally) and demanded money…and this guy just opens fire? Shoot to kill? Really? His property is worth 2 lives?

Furthermore, it was one against four (all apparently with guns). They are all extremely lucky that when this guy started shooting, that the robbers that weren’t hit right away didn’t start shooting employees. He couldn’t shoot 4 people at the same time. It was a stupid and reckless move, in my opinion. Everyone in the store was very lucky not to be hurt.

The AP definitely took the side of the young robbers, and they shouldn’t be taking sides at all. That was wrong, indeed.

I’m just trying to give my perspective for why I think that guy might have overreacted a little recklessly.