Philadelphia gun store owner allegedly kills potential looter: police

A Philadelphia gun store owner killed a suspected potential looter early Tuesday, police said.

The owner of Firing Line Inc. in South Philadelphia told police he was inside his store when four men entered after smashing the glass of the door at 4:13 a.m.

The 67-year-old owner, whose name was not released by police, confronted the men after they ran up the stairs and discharged his Bushmaster M4 rifle, “fatally wounding one offender,” the Philadelphia Police Department said in a statement.

“One of the individuals that broke into the property, pointed a handgun at him,” Chief Inspector Scott Smalls told Fox 29. “And that’s when the store owner fired his own weapon — striking the one perpetrator at least one time in the head and he collapsed, dropping his gun between his legs.”

The individual, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was a black man in his mid-20s and armed with a handgun, police said, adding that the other three men “fled the store in an unknown direction.”

The store owner was not injured, and no arrests have been made.

“This investigation is active and ongoing with the Homicide Unit,” the department said in a statement.

Police officials said a man at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital was being treated with a gunshot wound to the shoulder, and it’s a “possibility” he is connected to the incident. Officials are waiting to see the bullet before verifying any connection, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The store owner told police that he stayed the night in his store after an attempted break-in Sunday evening, according to Fox29. It’s unclear whether he called the police that night.

Protests have erupted in cities across the country, including in Philadelphia, over the killing of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.

Video footage shows now-former officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes as Floyd said he could not breathe. Chauvin has been fired and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The other three officers involved in Floyd’s arrest were fired but not charged.

The subsequent demonstrations across the U.S. have turned violent in some areas, with incidents of looting and property damage.