ROBBERY SUSPECT FATALLY SHOT IN STRUGGLE WITH STORE CLERKS

http://www.chicago.tribune.com/version1/article/0,1575,SAV-0010150012,00.html

By Karen Mellen
Tribune Staff Writer
October 15, 2000
A Chicago man who police believe robbed a South Side grocery store Sept. 19 was fatally shot with his own gun Friday afternoon when he tried to rob the same store, police said.

The two clerks working at Ray’s Corner Market, in the 2800 block of West 63rd Street, were not charged in the shooting because it was ruled a justifiable homicide, said Officer Thomas Donegan of Chicago Police Department news affairs.

One of the clerks, who asked that his name not be used, said that the 1 p.m. robbery attempt was foiled because Larry D. Oliver, 21, inadvertently kicked an electrical cord to the cash register, unplugging it and making it impossible to open the drawer.

The 24-year-old clerk said Oliver, who had ordered him to his knees and held a gun to his head, moved the gun away and reached for the cash register.

“We both grabbed the hand [with the gun],” the clerk said, referring to the other employee, who was trying to open the cash drawer. “We twisted his hand, then he shot himself.”

Donegan confirmed that Oliver, of the 7900 block of South Ingleside Avenue, was shot with his own weapon.

Oliver was pronounced dead at the scene from the bullet, which hit him in the left shoulder and exited through his lower back.

Police said that Oliver had not been charged in the previous robbery but that employees had identified him as the culprit.

The 24-year-old clerk, who is married and has two children, said he and the other employee fought with the gunman because there was little money in the register and they feared that could have led to a bigger scene.

“I’m not going to quit,” said the clerk, who was working on Saturday. “This guy, he did a mistake coming and robbing us. He ended up shooting himself.”