Birmingham, Alabama



From the Birmingham News of November 25, 2003:

Clerk cleared in fatal shooting



Convenience store death in holdup ruled justifiable



The owner of a North Birmingham convenience store said one of her employees had no choice but to shoot and kill a gun-wielding robber who burst into the shop over the weekend.



"I hate that it happened," said Tina Brown, owner of Spot-1-Stop. "But basically, it was either him get shot or one of them."



Demarcus Daniels, 18, was killed about 11 p.m. Saturday in what authorities said was a holdup attempt at the 26th Street North store.



The Jefferson County district attorney's office on Monday ruled the shooting justifiable.



"There was a videotape that clearly shows him robbing the place with a gun in his hand," said Chief Deputy District Attorney Roger Brown.



Police questioned the store employee who fired the shot, but did not take him into custody. His name was not released.



Daniels' mother, Glenda Daniels, said her son was not violent and never carried a gun.



"If he did," she said Monday, "it's shocking to me."



Tina Brown said Daniels came into the store Saturday night pointing a gun at the female cashier.



"He was yelling and cussing her and telling her to give him the money," Tina Brown said. "He said it was no joke, that he was fixing to blow her (expletive) head off."



Another employee stocking the store shelves heard the commotion and came to help. He grabbed a gun that Tina Brown kept in the store and fired a shot at Daniels, striking him in the chest or stomach area.



Daniels fell to the floor, got back up and ran out of the store, Tina Brown said.



He dropped a gun just outside the door and then collapsed at the far end of the parking lot. He was pronounced dead on the scene.



The entire incident was caught on a security surveillance camera.



"It's all on tape," Tina Brown said. "It was self-defense, plain and simple."



Tina Brown said if Saturday's holdup attempt had been successful, it would have been the fifth robbery at the store in the past year. There have also been six burglaries during that time.



That's why she bought the gun, she said.



"Enough's enough," she said.



Tina Brown said there have been threats of retaliation since the shooting, and someone slit the tires on the truck of another one of her employees. She said she won't let the trouble ruin business.



"People say it's a bad neighborhood but it's not. We have some of the best customers," she said. "One person doesn't make a bad community.



"So far, the people in the community understand it couldn't be avoided."