Richmond Store owner grateful for man who shot robber
Three days after Mustapha Kassou was shot in an attempted robbery in his store in South Richmond, he said that he owed his life to the man who ended the ordeal by shooting the robber.
Yesterday, Kassou returned to Golden Food Market on Jefferson Davis Highway for the first time since he was shot there Saturday afternoon.
Kassou said the masked robber walked into the store shortly after 1 p.m. and seemed startled to see about eight people inside. The robber told everyone to get on the floor, and then he fired at Kassou and hit him twice, he said.
"When the guy shot me, I was waiting for him to finish me," Kassou said. "I was knocked down behind the cash register."
The other armed man pulled a six-shot revolver from his holster and told the robber to drop his weapon, Kassou said. When he didn't, authorities say, the man shot the robber once in the torso, took the robber's gun and called police.
Witnesses told police it appeared the robber ran out of bullets and tried to reload. Some people in the store told the man to finish off the robber, witnesses reported.
"Everyone was telling him to kill him," Kassou said, "but he said, 'I can't do it.'"
Saturday's incident was the second such shooting at the store in a month.
The two shootings at Golden Food and the fatal shooting of a shopkeeper last month in another store just blocks away have alarmed some nearby residents, although police say the number of violent crimes along the Jefferson Davis corridor has been declining since May.
Councilwoman Reva Trammell, whose 8th District includes the corridor, and police Cmdr. Steve Drew will hold a public safety meeting for Jeff Davis-area business owners tonight from 6 to 8 at the Satellite Restaurant, 4000 Jefferson Davis Highway.
Kassou was released from the hospital Sunday, but he was limping and in obvious pain yesterday. He sat inside his store with family members, but he kept the front door locked. He said the shootings have made him scared of almost everyone.
He said he was struggling with whether he should reopen the store. He does not know how he would support his wife and two children if he chooses to keep the store closed.
Kassou said he is considering returning to his native Morocco. He said he is an American citizen and has lived here about 20 years and loves this country.
"It's not worth it anymore," he said, adding that he will arm himself if he reopens the store.
Kassou said he still is alive because of God -- and because of the man who drew a .45-caliber Western-style revolver and ended Saturday's robbery by shooting the gunman.
"He saved a lot of lives," Kassou said. "He was like an angel who came to save everybody."
Authorities say the robber was wounded after he shot Kassou and fired on customers.
Neither Kassou nor the police would identify the man who shot the robber. Authorities said an initial investigation indicates the man acted lawfully when he shot the robber.
Police have charged James Grooms III, 30, of South Richmond with attempted robbery, use of a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon.
He remained in critical condition last night at VCU Medical Center.
A woman who said she is one of Grooms' relatives declined to comment when reached by phone yesterday.
Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or
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To all who “Monday Morning Quarterback” anything whatsoever:
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,
who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great
devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause.
Who, at the best, knows in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.
So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.“
“Citizenship in a Republic,“
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
Teddy Roosevelt
If you were educated and informed past what the parrots on the dummy tube (tv) tell you, you would know HOW badly our 1st and 2nd Amendments are being demolished RIGHT NOW.
Gun grabbers are as a whole misinformed or have ulterior motives.
When they start with their statistics I would like to tell them this:
7,000 deaths per year from medication errors in hospitals
• 12,000 deaths per year from unnecessary surgery
• 20,000 deaths per year from other errors in hospitals
• 80,000 deaths per year from nosocomial infections in hospitals
• 106,000 deaths per year from nonerror, adverse effects of medications.
http://www.zona.com/blog/index.php/fatalities-and-deaths-due-to-adverse-drug-reactions/
does not include how many are killed by doctors.
Where are your hysterics about that horror? Media wont touch that subject, as most their revenue comes from drug ads.
Look through the last century see what happens when self defense gets restricted more and more and then wiped out…BTW the “gun grabber nuts” are going after pocket knives knives now too.
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/Content/article.aspx?RsrcID=49527
Get involved, be informed. Check out web pages of VCDL or Gun Owners of America!
And then join GOOH (look it up)
jack000 ...actually with my RIGHT to Bare Arms, I have the RIGHT to have that bullet also.
Do you really think any sort of legislation is going to stop thugs and criminals from getting guns? It’s already ILLEGAL for them to have and use the guns, and that isn’t stopping them!
The “thug” at the gunshow was able to get the gun because he met all requirements set forth by the law, therefore he cannot be but so much of a thug. (ie no felonies/criminal background…)
jack000…You can’t be serious, “you don’t have a RIGHT to carry the bullet”. the constitution gives me the right to keep and bear arms, a bullet is considered an “arm”. One of the reasons that law abiding gun owners are quick to jump on any nutty “common sense gun law” is because those laws VIOLATE the constitution, and there are many people and politicians that want to bury the 2nd ammendement! Put down the kool-aid and wisen up!!
Folks, people like Jack000ff is a reason to support the NRA. I just made a donation in memory of his comments.
Proof positive that each and every human on the planet should be required to carry a loaded handgun. Yee-haw!
go to a gun show and look around. watch “thugs” walk in and out buying guns on the spot. just because you were in line behind them, doesn’t mean this is right. and as for rights, you don’t have a RIGHT to carry the bullet. there are tons of ways around the constitution to make it say what you need it to say for the era we live in. bend your mind a little to think creatively and progress. the issue is, we have a problem and with problems come solutions and with solutions come inventions, whether it be laws, programs, products, etc… but the point is, we need to actively work toward fixing the system because your constituional right to carry your weapons as it is perceived today isn’t working. so stop being so ridged, so stubburn, so stuck that you are afraid of trying a different avenue of gun policy. yours doesn’t work. the end. and with all you wonderful gun carrying men out there that think it’s your duty to protect the rest of us from criminals, you aren’t doing a good job. the criminals are winning. and your fear, your ego, your “right” is keeping legislation from even attempting to solve the problem. every single solution that is put on the table is immediately struck down by the nra because they and people like i’ve seen here won’t budge. i hope to god too many more people don’t die from guns purchased “legally” by nut-jobs with metal history…or dads that decide to take out the whole family because he lost his job…or that thug that was in line behind you at the gun show didn’t decide to shoot his friend over a bag of weed and the bullet accidently hits the toddler watching tv in the next room. but hey, you have your gun and you’ll save the day the next time you’re in a store when someone robs the joint. if that happens, again, i hope the robber has to take time to reload for you to get your shot in.
This is a GREAT example of why we need the right to carry firearms, especially conceal carry!! Had this citizen not been armed, mor people would have been hurt or killed! By the way, did the criminal have a conceal carry permit, or did he have the gun out in plain view? This is a great demonstration of how VERY WRONG proponents of restrictive gun laws are, and this criminal should be put in jail for life or worse!!!
jack000 ...you stated “we want proper avenues to get guns in a safe way and a proper regulation of using the gun as in mandatory courses, mandatory age requirements, mandatory renewal of licenses…we WANT people that have guns to HAVE to have the same skill, respect, and ethics obviously shown in this unidentified hero of this story.“
Are you not aware of what is required to obtain a gun and a license in the proper way? First of all, in order to go inside of a store and purchase a hand gun one must first pass a series of tests. Visit http://www.vsp.state.va.us/Firearms_PurchaseEligibility.shtm to get the complete list. (ie you cant be a felon, you cant have a restraining order against you…).
Now, after you buy the gun, if you wish to carry that gun and conceal it, you also have a list of things to complete. You have to be able to obtain your concealed weapons permit, which is given out by the circuit court. You have to be 21, have taken a safety/training course approved by the state; and pass a background check (which of course includes figner prints). Also, these licenses are required to be renewed, they arent a lifetime thing. Read here for more info: http://www.vsp.state.va.us/Firearms_ResidentConcealed.shtm#PermitRenewal
Now, for those that are the ones commiting these roberies, this is what they do to get a gun:
1.) go to local street corner and ask thug for a gun
2.) give money to gun selling thug
So basically you are saying you want MORE rules and regulations towards those of us that want to LEGALLY obtain and USE a firearm? Seriously?
You need to be more concerned with STOPPING those that get the guns illegally, not with adding more requirements for those of us who own/carry/use them properly.
jack000, And what kindof courses would you have the criminals that get most all their weapons illegally take? Huh? Oh yeah, lets make it harder for good people to have guns and still easy for criminals to get them. What a bunch of nonsense. You and all the other gun control crazies are exactly that, crazy. I guess someone like you thought that prohabition would work too? Or making cocaine illegal would work. Or, legalizing medicinal marijuana would stop illegal mj use. You better hope that the laws dont change so much for guns that most of the civil people in the country dont have guns , because when the poop hits the fan in this country we wont be able to stop it. You’ll be crying like babies, what have we done. Its exactly what the criminals and terrorist want, for pansies like yourself to cry and cry about gun control so most americans cant or dont want to bother to have them.
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