Bucks DA: Pizza Shop Customer Justified In Shooting Of Robbery Suspects, Despite Expired Permit
LEVITTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- There was little time to think for pizza shop owner Gilmer Porfirio; little time to process the frightening robbery in progress just before 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday night at his shop in the 900 block of Veterans Highway in Levittown.
"You don't think at that time," Porfirio said.
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Investigators say a customer had just placed an order when two men wearing surgical gloves and bandannas over their faces stormed into the store carrying what looked to be handguns and demanding money. They ordered the customer and two employees to the ground then violently began attacking the customer.
"They began pistol whipping the customer, hitting him repeatedly in the head," said Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub.
The 35-year-old victim somehow managed to pull his 45 Caliber handgun out and shot 24-year-old Shawn Rose in the chest and he died at the scene. His brother 22-year-old Justin Rose was also shot and critically injured. It was later discovered both brothers were carrying pellet guns; guns that looked all too real.
Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub has ruled it a justifiable shooting despite the fact that the shooter's concealed weapons permit had expired months ago. He says other factors outweighed any charges calling the customer a law abiding citizen, a business owner who held a permit for 10 years prior to this lapse.
The entire robbery was captured on surveillance video. The pizza shop has since reopened and the 22-year-old remains in critical condition at Jefferson Hospital.
