Armed Store Clerk Stops a Trio of Armed Robbers on their 12th Robbery

On November 24, 2012 at around 8 PM, Jermaine Eason, 23, and Rayvon Wilson, 23, entered El Jaya Deli & Grocery in Paterson, NJ wearing masks and carrying guns. While one of the criminals kept customers in the back of the store, the other kept a handgun pointed at the store's owner and demanded cash from the register.

After they got the cash, they ransacked the store and grabbed several cartons of cigarettes to go along with the approximately $6500 in cash. As they were leaving the store, another employee grabbed a gun that was kept behind the register and chased after the robbers, shooting one on the sidewalk outside the store.

When police pulled over the suspected getaway car shortly thereafter, they found Eason with a gunshot wound in his lower back. The other two, Wilson, and the driver, Clara Amala, 22, were arrested and charged with various counts of armed robbery.

The drama doesn't end there for the employee who shot them, however. Since New Jersey law states that a person can only use force to defend himself only if it is immediately necessary to protect himself or another from an assailant's unlawful use of force, the fact that he shot Eason immediately outside the store opens the door for him to potentially be prosecuted.

Regardless, his actions allowed police to catch criminals who were involved in 11 previous armed robberies and he likely prevented many more.