Dayton, Ohio

From the Dayton Daily News of August 21, 2007

Two dead, two arrested in Dayton store shooting

Airman nabs suspect minutes after shooting

Two people were shot to death and two people were arrested in a convenience store robbery Tuesday afternoon, Dayton police said. The owner of the Covault Market and Coin Laundry, 3705 Wayne Ave., was killed inside his store along with an employee, according to Maj. Michael Brown.

The robbery and shooting happened about 1:30 p.m.

Brown said two suspects were in custody.

An Air National Guard airman apprehended a masked gunman who was fleeing from the scene, according to the man's mother.

Robert Bragg, 24, who works as a military police officer at the Springfield Air National Guard base, was sitting on his porch about 1:30 p.m. when he noticed two suspicious young men walking down Coventry Road off Wayne Avenue, said Barbi Byrd, Bragg's mother.

Shortly after that, Byrd said she heard popping sounds and screaming. In the next instant, she said her son saw the same two men running down Coventry. Each was wearing a ski mask and armed with a handgun.

Bragg retrieved his 9mm pistol, pointed it the men and ordered them to stop and drop their weapons, Byrd said.

"I was freaking out. I thought one of them would shoot him," Byrd said.

One man dropped his gun and threw up his hands, as Bragg ordered, while the other took off running through a neighbor's yard.

While one of the men was on the ground, he told Bragg his name and begged to be released. The man said he only committed the robbery while under threat, Byrd said.

Byrd described her son as a vigilant and alert neighborhood advocate.

"He's our neighborhood watchdog, " she said.

Police took the second suspect into custody a short time later, Brown said.

The store did have security cameras.

Neighbors said the store had been robbed before.