New Orleans, Louisiana

From the December 31, 2006 New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Bar owner Frank Barrera acted quickly and quietly when he spotted two men pulling out pistols as they entered his newly opened Mid-City business Saturday about 2 a.m.

Pulling an armed security guard behind a wall next to the bar, Barrera waited a few moments as one of the men grabbed a patron and dragged him behind the bar, and moved toward Barrera's wife, Maria, who had been counting money near the cash register. As the bar customer wriggled free, the guard fired a shot into the robber's torso, dropping him on the spot.

"That's the best thing we had to do. I had seen the guys walking in, and that was good. So we got ready," said Barrera, who opened his La Finca Home Plate Inn at 542 S. Jefferson Davis Parkway six weeks ago. "It's very hard to explain because it was so fast and happened in maybe 30 or 40 seconds. It's very scary." He said his wife of 19 years "almost got shot in the head."

The 22-year-old wounded suspect died at the scene after taking a pounding from debris thrown onto him by people in the bar, while his companion disappeared on foot, according to witnesses and a bar videotape. Police haven't yet released the dead man's name, but said he is from New Orleans.

Police and business people in some New Orleans neighborhoods have struggled in recent weeks to cope with armed bar robberies. It wasn't known if suspects involved in Saturday's incident will be linked to other incidents that have terrorized patrons and bartenders.

Barrera, 54, said he had operated a nearby restaurant for 30 years before Katrina and worked for months to open the new business, but knew he would need a guard and security cameras to protect his customers in a post-Katrina climate.

According to witness and the New Orleans Police Department, the gunman behind the bar was shot once in the left torso by a former criminal sheriff's deputy working a security detail.

...

The Police Department classified the shooting as a justifiable homicide and filed no charges against the guard, but Richardson said the district attorney's office will review the incident. The department wouldn't immediately identify the guard.