Store owner's gun becomes a trial
He's shot it out with robbers; now he's charged with carrying concealed weapon in his shop
By Dave Doege of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: June 18, 2000
Munir Hamdan unlocks the door of his family's small food market each business day for the customers who call him Mike and make him feel part of the neighborhood.
"I feel welcome here," Hamdan said on a sunny afternoon in his store. "I've been here for 12 years, and the people in the neighborhood want me to stay here."
But the 2400 block of W. Capitol Drive can be as lawless as it is friendly.
Between 1997 and 1999, the neighborhood that sends Capitol Foods its customers experienced six homicides, 98 robberies, 94 aggravated batteries and 16 rapes, according to Police Department statistics.
One of the murders - an execution, really - happened on the sidewalk outside Hamdan's store and three of the holdups occurred with him or one of his sons facing the barrel of a robber's pistol.
One masked robber put his pistol to the side of Hamdan's head and pulled the trigger. Somehow the bullet didn't come out, Hamdan said of why he lived through that stickup.
Another gun on another day did fire a bullet when a robber pulled a trigger, but he wound up dead when Hamdan and his two sons returned fire with guns of their own.
"In this neighborhood you don't always know who's coming in the door," Hamdan aid. "Some of the people are crazy. There's a shooting once a week in this neighborhood."
It's because of those people that Hamdan made it a habit to have a pistol in his pocket or at his side from the time that he unlocks his front door in the morning until the time he locks it at night.
Central city merchants like Hamdan know that any given workday holds the potential for a life or death struggle.
On Wednesday, another central city store operator pulled out his gun and fatally shot a man who tried to rob him with a butcher knife, according to police.
Last month, the owner of still another inner city neighborhood market was killed when he was shot in the face during a holdup.
But Hamdan's habit of packing a pistol at work has left him in trouble with the law and facing a trial next month on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon.
And though all of a judge's rulings have gone against him so far, Hamdan and his lawyer feel they have no choice but to take the case to trial.
"Each day he opens his door to an environment that can be very violent," explained Hamdan's attorney, Jorge A. Gomez. "It's very important to him to feel secure in that environment, and that's the bottom line here."
Hamdan, 54, has operated Capitol Foods, 2483 W. Capitol Drive, since 1987. His store is like other corner groceries scattered throughout tough neighborhoods the big supermarkets abandoned years ago.
It's the family business with his sons helping out at the cash register, his wife cooking meals in back and a grandchild who comes by to visit.
Bulletproof Glass
But the bulletproof glass installed three years ago around the checkout counter is a stark reminder of the danger that prompted Hamdan to always have a handgun at the ready. The glass went in after Hamdan and his sons had their February 1997 shootout with Chris A. Robinson, 29.
"He fired at my son first and my son fired back," Hamdan said. "Then there was firing back and forth between us all."
Robinson was the only one wounded and died on the sidewalk. Police seized all three of the family's guns, but after the district attorneys office concluded that Hamdan shot Robinson in self-defense, the pistols were returned and Hamdan continued keeping a gun in constant reach.
Usually it's under the counter, Hamdan explained.
"But if someone comes in and gives me a bad feeling, I put it in my pocket. That's the point of having a gun, so you can get it when you need it."
Before the bulletproof glass went in, according to Hamdan, one of those customers who gave him bad vibes got to the gun from behind the counter before Hamdan did and was out the door with it before the merchant could do anything about it.
"Police have stopped in my store many times and asked me if I have a gun," Hamdan said. "I always told them about the gun. Nobody ever said, 'Don't carry the gun in your pocket.' "
A Visit from Police
On Nov. 26, a pair of police officers who visited Hamdan's store to question him about his beer sales asked him if he had a gun.
He reached into the right-front pocket of his trousers and pulled out a loaded .32-caliber revolver.
Court records indicate that the officers weren't immediately certain about what to do.
After discussing the situation with Hamdan, they left with his gun and ordered him to appear the following week in the district attorney's office.
On Dec. 3, he was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor that carries a jail term of up to nine months and a fine of up to $10,000.
Gomez, a former prosecutor who spent three years in the homicide unit of the district attorney's office before becoming a defense lawyer, subsequently filed motions asking that the case be dismissed.
"There is sufficient objective evidence that Mr. Hamdan is justified to carry a concealed weapon in his own store given the type of criminal activity that occurs in the area where his store is located," Gomez argued in the motion filed with Circuit Judge Robert Crawford.
"There is also sufficient subjective evidence that Mr. Hamdan has a reason to fear for the safety of his family and himself given the history of armed confrontations he has experienced as a store owner," Gomez said.
Constitution Cited
Gomez contended that a 1998 amendment to the state constitution concerning the right to keep and bear arms meant that the weapons charge as it was being applied to Hamdan is unjust.
"There is no suggestion by the defendant's affidavit or the police reports submitted by the defendant that he was facing an imminent danger at the time he possessed the loaded revolver," Assistant District Attorney Mary Sowinski countered.
"In fact, his argument that he needed to carry the gun for security is counter-intuitive to his chosen method of carrying a concealed weapon: a person's display of a handgun may deter crime while concealment would not," Sowinski said.
Crawford concluded that the concealed weapon charge was not being unjustly applied to Hamdan.
"The manner in which a person may bear arms for security, defense and other lawful purposes remains subject to regulation by laws enacted by the state legislature, notwithstanding the adoption of (the 1998 amendment)," Crawford wrote.
Crawford also subsequently denied Gomez's motion to present the same issues to the jury during Hamdan's trial.
Despite the rulings, Gomez and Hamdan say they will push the case to trial next month.
"It may only be a misdemeanor to some people, but it's important to Munir," Gomez said. "We're talking about the right to protect oneself in a high-crime atmosphere, an atmosphere where he has had to protect himself in the past."
As Hamdan summed up: "Put yourself in my place. What would you do? I keep the gun where I can get it when I need it."
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on June 19, 2000.
