Nov. 20--The owner of a bakery in Calumet City shot a man who was using a toy gun to usher him and an employee to the back of the store during a robbery, police said.
The incident happened about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Cal City Bakery, near State Line Road and 154th Place in the south suburb, said Calumet City police Chief Edward Gilmore.
Unbeknownst to the bakery owner, one of the two men who tried to rob the store was wielding a toy handgun. The gun appeared "fairly realistic," Gilmore said.
The owner of the bakery watched the robbery unfold from closed-circuit television from the center part of the building. The man with the gun ushered an employee and then the owner toward the back of the building.
The owner wondered why they were being taken to the back of the building after complying with the robbers' demands for cash.
"When they get two-thirds of the way back, the owner decides, this is not going to turn out well," Gilmore said. "He gave them the money. ... So he pulls the gun, fires, strikes the first offender that was pointing at them seven times."
The wounded robber's accomplice fled through the front door with the wounded man following close behind, police said. Police found him in a car nearby. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and came out of surgery Wednesday morning, Gilmore said. The man has not been charged.
The bakery owner was within his right to open fire, Gilmore said. He had a firearm owner's identification card and "did not act until he was really in fear of his life and waited as long as he probably should given the circumstances," Gilmore said.
"While we don't advocate citizens taking the law into their own hands, in this case it seems the owner did everything the right way," Gilmore said. "He was in fear of his life and the life of his employee, and he acted in a prudent manner to save his life and the life of his employee, based on the facts he knew at the time."
