Store owner had a gun to his head. Then he called the robber’s bluff, video shows
When a would-be robber pulled a gun on Doyle Stinson in his furniture store, he immediately began thinking of ways to fight back, the Indianapolis man told WTHR.
“I’m watching the camera looking where he’s at. I grew up in this neighborhood. I know how to protect myself,” Stinson told the station. “I was looking for a chance to grab his arm, break it.”
Police said it was 11 a.m. on July 5 when Stinson encountered a man in his store, Decor Furniture, WISH reported. Surveillance video, released by police in an attempt to identify the man, caught some of the incident.
The video shows Stinson walking to the front of the store and talking with a man in a black shirt. As they walk to the front of the store, the man pulls out a handgun and holds it to Stinson’s head. Stinson can be seen flipping through a wallet before the man marches him toward the back of the store, gun still to his head.
But as the man took him to the back, Stinson told Fox 59 he had a realization.
“I knew when he pulled the hammer back on the automatic weapon there wasn’t a bullet in the chamber,” Stinson told the station. “I know the sound.”
As they arrived at the back side of the store, Stinson said he hit a silent alarm and grabbed his own pistol and pointed it at the intruder, Fox 59 reported.
The surveillance video shows the intruder turning tail and sprinting out of the store. Stinson is not in frame.
Police said a witness picked Stinson up and they chased the man for awhile before returning to the shop, the Indianapolis Star reported. The man has yet to be identified.
Stinson told WTHR he would have shot the robber but was too worried about accidentally harming someone else.
“If he’d have shot me, I would’ve shot him. But I was more worried about the people out in front of my store,” he told the station. “A child out there across the street. It ain’t worth it.”
No injuries were reported and no shots were fired. The suspect fled in a dark-colored SUV with an Indiana “In God We Trust” license plate on it, police said, according to the Star.