It was a typical Tuesday evening at Will’s Food Store in Mount Holly, North Carolina, at least until Victor Almodovar Jr walked in. Armed with a handgun, Almodovar demanded cash from the store clerk. What he didn’t realize is that one of the customers inside the store was armed as well. Authorities say the armed citizen drew his own handgun and fired at the would-be robber, wounding Almodovar and ending the threat to employees and customers.
Police said nobody else was hurt and the customer was not arrested.
Shortly after the shooting, the customer’s mother came to the store and said he drove away after the shooting. Others called him a hero.
“The guy that saved her and the customers…he wouldn’t have hurt anybody, but he saved people,” one woman said. “Whatever [Almodovar’s] intentions were was robbing somebody and try to get away.”
Almodovar was taken to a local hospital, but passed away from his injuries a short time later.
Authorities haven’t said much about the armed citizen other than the fact that he’s not currently facing charges. Based on what’s been reported, it sounds like the customer was well within his rights to defend the store clerk with deadly force. Almodovar was the initial aggressor, and by pointing a gun at the clerk he presented a threat to her life.
If the robber had only verbally threatened the clerk or even used his fists to assault her, the armed citizen would likely not have been justified in using deadly force to stop the threat. But the gun owner was only using proportionate force to stop the robber, and unless there are other elements of the encounter that police have not yet shared with the public, shooting to save the life of the clerk would be justified under North Carolina law.
This is at least the second defensive gun use in North Carolina in recent days where shots were fired. Police in Davidson County, North Carolina reported the arrest of William Holmes on Wednesday after he was shot while allegedly violating a restraining order.
On Sept. 6, patrol deputies responded to South Road in High Point after a report of a domestic situation. When they arrived, they said they found William Holmes behind the home. He had been shot, but the injury was non-life-threatening.
Detectives also responded and began investigating.
During the investigation, detectives learned that Holmes, 30, had forced his way into the home and tried to stop the homeowner from calling 911 by taking their cell phone. Holmes also had an active restraining order against him, and he was not allowed to be on the property or around the residents.
Police haven’t said who actually shot Holmes, but it was apparently one of the residents inside the home. Now the 30-year-old is facing a litany of criminal charges, including felony breaking and entering with intent to terrorize, felony common law robbery, and violating that order of protection.
Do you think either of these armed citizens will get a shout out from Kamala Harris at either of her rallies in North Carolina today? Yeah, me either, even though Harris proclaimed herself a gun owner and claimed she isn’t interested in taking everyone’s guns away during Tuesday night’s debate. While Harris routinely states during her stump speech that she supports the Second Amendment (along with “reasonable” gun control laws), she’s never actually offered any support or praise for the right to keep and bear arms or armed citizens who defend themselves and others, and I doubt she’s going to start now. Harris has spent her entire political career making it harder for we the people to exercise our Second Amendment rights, and defensive gun uses like these aren’t something she’s going to celebrate or even acknowledge, no matter how hard she tries to reinvent herself as a moderate when it comes to the right to keep and bear arms.
