It starts out like the another round of déjà vu. An armed robber pushes open the doors of a local convenience store and heads for the cash register. Who would expect an armed robber at 6:40 in the morning?
This time he points his revolver at the clerk and a hapless customer who seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The two are then forced into the store’s walk-in cooler, potentially making it much more easy to bind or gag them, or worse, before plundering the register.
That’s where this story takes an about-face.
According to police, little did 30-year-old Christopher Lilly, with 11 prior arrests already under his belt, know the customer he forced into the cooler was a concealed carry permit holder.
Passing the concealed weapon to the store clerk, the tables turned. The clerk bounded out of the cooler firing a warning shot. The surprise shot caused Lilly to drop his gun and the two jumped him, wrestling him to the ground. It was then that Lilly allegedly made a desperate grab for his gun. The customer fired another shot into Lilly’s right thigh.
But it wasn’t over yet. A passerby reportedly called 911 and a Florida deputy arrived just in time to apprehend Lilly.
And the beat goes on.
