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Would-be robber fatally shot in DeKalb
Store owner unlikely to be charged
Bill Montgomery - Staff
Thursday, June 1, 2000
J.C. Adams, a 72-year-old DeKalb County storekeeper who killed an alleged armed robber Wednesday after he himself was shot in the buttocks, appears to have acted in self-defense and likely will not be charged.
"The case is still under investigation, but he has not been charged, and that appears unlikely," said DeKalb police spokeswoman Mikki Jones. "We will go to the district attorney with the evidence we find to take to the grand jury if he so chooses."
That also appeared unlikely Wednesday, with DeKalb District Attorney J. Tom Morgan saying that "any citizen has an absolute right to self-defense.
"And you can use deadly force if deadly force is used against you, to protect yourself, certainly in the case of an armed robbery," Morgan said.
Adams, owner of the Pac A Sac store at 2615 Lawrenceville Highway for 24 years, was in the tiny rear office at his store when he saw two armed men at the counter on the store monitor about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. He grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun.
The gunmen had ordered two customers to lie on the floor, Adams said, and one gunman was demanding money from clerk Sheila Terrell.
The store owner said that when he came around a grocery shelf, one man fired at him with a handgun, hitting him in the buttocks.
"Then I shot him, and he fell," Adams recounted. "He kept twisting and maneuvering around on the floor, and I think he was trying to get another shot at me."
DeKalb police Lt. P.L. Kunz said Adams' shot hit the man in the chest. The second bandit rushed to the door, followed by the wounded man, who struggled to his feet and left the store.
He collapsed moments later on a side street a few hundred yards from the entrance. His accomplice, whom police had not identified, was still at large Wednesday evening.
Police said they found cash and "property" they would not describe next to the wounded man's body.
Leroy Holt, 32, of 3575 Oakvale Road in Decatur, died on arrival at Atlanta Medical Center.
A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections said Holt served time in prison for armed robbery from July 1990 to April 1993, when he was paroled. He later served 15 months for possession of burglary tools and was released in March 1996.
He was on two years' probation, to end in August 2001, for a drug conviction, she added.
Adams, who was treated at the same hospital where Holt died, was back at work --- and sitting down --- at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, 11 hours after he was shot.
"I don't hurt," said Adams, who uses a cane, and did so before Tuesday's holdup. "The shot was through and through and they bandaged me up, gave me a pain shot." He said he has been robbed "four or five" times at the Pac A Sac, but intends to keep operating.
"If I can just get this bad knee to working, I think I'm good for another 10,000 miles," Adams said.
Don Grisewood, 58, Adams' accountant and a regular customer at Pac A Sac, said he was in the store Tuesday night, engrossed in a video game called "Treasure Quest" on the other side of the counter when he heard clerk Terrell's raised voice, turned and saw the second bandit, from five feet away, pointing a gun at him.
"I'm not sure why I did it, but I just turned back to playing the game," said Grisewood. "I think maybe in my subconscious, I figured if I acted like I didn't give a (expletive) he wouldn't shoot me. And for some reason he didn't."
Would-be robber fatally shot in DeKalb
Store owner unlikely to be charged
Bill Montgomery - Staff
Thursday, June 1, 2000
J.C. Adams, a 72-year-old DeKalb County storekeeper who killed an alleged armed robber Wednesday after he himself was shot in the buttocks, appears to have acted in self-defense and likely will not be charged.
"The case is still under investigation, but he has not been charged, and that appears unlikely," said DeKalb police spokeswoman Mikki Jones. "We will go to the district attorney with the evidence we find to take to the grand jury if he so chooses."
That also appeared unlikely Wednesday, with DeKalb District Attorney J. Tom Morgan saying that "any citizen has an absolute right to self-defense.
"And you can use deadly force if deadly force is used against you, to protect yourself, certainly in the case of an armed robbery," Morgan said.
Adams, owner of the Pac A Sac store at 2615 Lawrenceville Highway for 24 years, was in the tiny rear office at his store when he saw two armed men at the counter on the store monitor about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. He grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun.
The gunmen had ordered two customers to lie on the floor, Adams said, and one gunman was demanding money from clerk Sheila Terrell.
The store owner said that when he came around a grocery shelf, one man fired at him with a handgun, hitting him in the buttocks.
"Then I shot him, and he fell," Adams recounted. "He kept twisting and maneuvering around on the floor, and I think he was trying to get another shot at me."
DeKalb police Lt. P.L. Kunz said Adams' shot hit the man in the chest. The second bandit rushed to the door, followed by the wounded man, who struggled to his feet and left the store.
He collapsed moments later on a side street a few hundred yards from the entrance. His accomplice, whom police had not identified, was still at large Wednesday evening.
Police said they found cash and "property" they would not describe next to the wounded man's body.
Leroy Holt, 32, of 3575 Oakvale Road in Decatur, died on arrival at Atlanta Medical Center.
A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections said Holt served time in prison for armed robbery from July 1990 to April 1993, when he was paroled. He later served 15 months for possession of burglary tools and was released in March 1996.
He was on two years' probation, to end in August 2001, for a drug conviction, she added.
Adams, who was treated at the same hospital where Holt died, was back at work --- and sitting down --- at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, 11 hours after he was shot.
"I don't hurt," said Adams, who uses a cane, and did so before Tuesday's holdup. "The shot was through and through and they bandaged me up, gave me a pain shot." He said he has been robbed "four or five" times at the Pac A Sac, but intends to keep operating.
"If I can just get this bad knee to working, I think I'm good for another 10,000 miles," Adams said.
Don Grisewood, 58, Adams' accountant and a regular customer at Pac A Sac, said he was in the store Tuesday night, engrossed in a video game called "Treasure Quest" on the other side of the counter when he heard clerk Terrell's raised voice, turned and saw the second bandit, from five feet away, pointing a gun at him.
"I'm not sure why I did it, but I just turned back to playing the game," said Grisewood. "I think maybe in my subconscious, I figured if I acted like I didn't give a (expletive) he wouldn't shoot me. And for some reason he didn't."
