An armed robber died at the hands of a customer at a Houston restaurant last week after the customer, who was armed, reportedly shot him in self-defense during a robbery attempt.
🚨#WATCH: Self-defense shooting of armed robber at a restaurant
Watch as a brave customer at a taqueria shot restaurant shot and killed an armed criminal who was robbing from other customers. Houston police are now looking for that person for questioning pic.twitter.com/g7EYjms5PZ
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) January 7, 2023
Just before 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, the alleged armed robber reportedly walked into Ranchito Taqueria located at 6873 South Gessner Road. He then pulled a gun and began to demand customers’ belongings as seen in a surveillance video.
As the armed robber carried on the operation, the armed customer, who was seated with someone at a table, pulled his handgun. Houston PD Lt. Wilkens reportedly described the gun as a “plastic pistol, possibly an airsoft or possibly a little BB pistol.”
In a quick move, the patron shot the robber multiple times. It is unclear if he died immediately but he was pronounced dead upon the arrival of paramedics.
The identity of the suspect is unknown but he appears to be dressed in all-black clothing paired with black gloves and a black ski mask.
Surveillance footage shows him walking to the door after robbing customers of their money only to be stopped by the armed customer’s gunfire.
Houston police are now looking for the customer, who they say was not at the scene by the time officials arrived. Per the police report, he and other customers left the restaurant after he retrieved the stolen items from the dead robber and returned them to their owners.
With the public’s help, authorities hope they can identify the patron and bring him in for questioning in connection with his role in the shooting. They released a photo of his 1970s or 1980s model pickup truck to aid their search.
When asked if the shooting is justified, Nathan Beedle with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said that the armed customer is legitimate under Texas law, pointing to 9.31 and 9.32 of the penal code which allows deadly force in cases of aggravated robbery or robbery by threat.
Houstonian ends a threat to the lives of everyone in a South Gessner taqueria. Houstonians are fed up with crime and victims are tired of being abandoned by the American criminal justice system. The training and timing of the citizen was instrumental in this result. 👏👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/hZzdwDc3QI
— Charles Adams (@bigangrylaw) January 6, 2023
It is unclear if things will change upon police’s discovery that the gun the dead suspect waved was not real. However, no charges have been filed in the case at the moment.
