THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 2, 1995 TAG: 9502020367
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
R robbed at gunpoint and forced to lie on the floor, the owner of a small grocery store pursued three juveniles trying to get away and shot two of them, police said.
The teenage bandits were speeding off in a car Tuesday when Mark Hazelgrove opened up on them with a semiautomatic handgun, police said. All three juveniles were arrested.
No one was critically wounded in the 11 a.m. barrage that left the sidewalk littered with shell casings at Kinney's Market.
It was the second time in two months in the Richmond area in which business owners fired at robbers.
The teenagers, ages 14, 16 and 17, were en route to Charlotte, N.C., from Philadelphia in a stolen car, Detective David H. Carroll said.
They were charged with robbery, auto theft and using a firearm in a felony. Their names were not released because of their ages, but Carroll said two were from Charlotte and the other was from Philadelphia.
``Three juveniles pulled up in a car that was later confirmed to be stolen,'' Carroll said. ``Two of the juveniles . . . entered the store, one armed with a handgun, and robbed the owner and proprietor,'' Carroll said.
The robbers ``ordered the owner to lie on the floor while they exited the store,'' Carroll said.
At that point, the detective said, Hazelgrove got his weapon and ``pursued the suspects out of the store.''
The two teenagers jumped into the waiting car, where the third youth was waiting, and attempted to speed away, Carroll said.
``In front of the store, the owner fired several rounds at the suspects as they were trying to make their escape,'' he said.
``The car was shot all to heck, flat tire, the engine was leaking oil,'' Carroll said.
The getaway car came to rest two blocks away in the parking lot of a medical clinic, Carroll said, and the teenagers ran into the clinic.
One had been shot in the shoulder and the other had been hit in the leg. Both were taken to Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, where they were treated and released to police.
Police recovered a loaded .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol from the teenagers, Carroll said.
He said the commonwealth's attorney office would decide whether Hazelgrove would be charged.
On Dec. 2, two career criminals were killed when workers at a jewelry store in Henrico County interrupted a robbery attempt with gunfire.
KEYWORDS: JUVENILES SHOOTING ROBBERY AUTO THEFT by CNB