York, Pennsylvania

From the York Daily Record of September 27, 2005

Two men shot in York

Police said the men were shot during a robbery attempt at a store.

A store owner and one of three men who tried to rob his shop were shot Monday afternoon, according to York City Police.

Both the store owner and the suspect were treated at York Hospital Monday night. The business owner, Kevin Patrick Winter, was doing well, police said. The other man was in the intensive care unit late Monday night.

The shootings occurred at Kendal's Grocery and Jamaican Cuisine in the 600 block of East Market Street.

Shortly after 4 p.m., three men went into the store and tried to rob Winter. When he wouldn't comply, one of the men shot him once in the hip, said York County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Bill Graff.

A part-time store clerk, Steven Gray, fired several shots from a .45-caliber handgun, hitting one of the men, police said. The robbers ran out of the store.

Witnesses said they heard the shots and saw Winter lying in the store's doorway, bleeding. A man they described as his friend tried to keep Winter from passing out as they waited for help to arrive.

Within minutes, an ambulance came and took Winter to the hospital.

The uninjured robbers helped their hurt accomplice into a car and left, witnesses said. They sped past two city officers, Travis Sowers and Matthew Leitzel, who followed them to the hospital. The officers arrested the uninjured men while the third was treated in the emergency room, police said.

That man was shot four times — twice in the stomach and twice in the arm — the prosecutor said.

At the store, police blocked off the area out front, spreading yellow police tape from one side of the street to the other. A fire policeman diverted East Market Street's heavy, rush-hour traffic to an alternate way out of the city.

People who live on the street stood along the police tape watching officers work.

"It's a shame that people are out here shooting in broad daylight," one woman said. She shook her head as she walked up the street toward her apartment.

Police filed charges against two men Monday night, but court documents detailing the offenses weren't available. The man in the hospital was to be charged once he was moved from the intensive care unit, authorities said.

Charges include robbery, aggravated assault and attempted homicide. Gray won't be charged, Graff said.

"He didn't commit a crime. He defended himself," Graff said. Gray had a license to carry the gun, which was properly registered, he said..