GUNMAN FATALLY SHOT BY GROCER
Chicago Tribune | Metro –
GUNMAN FATALLY SHOT BY GROCER
http://chicagotribune.com/news/metro/southwest/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV-0104130288,FF.html
By Diana Strzalka
Tribune staff reporter
April 13, 2001
A South Side grocery owner, who neighbors said had been robbed
repeatedly over the years, Thursday morning shot and killed an armed
robber when the gunman turned toward a customer, police said.
Just before 10 a.m., Tyrone Ingram, 32, of Rockford, walked into Cidras
Super Market in the 2000 block of West 51st Street, pointed a gun at a
42-year-old female cashier and announced a stickup, police said.
The 57-year-old shopkeeper, Anselmo Nieves, better known as Shorty,
handed over the cash drawer and cigarettes, police said. Ingram then
allegedly hit Nieves over the head knocking him to the floor.
When a customer walked in, Ingram, a man with a criminal record that
included attempted armed robbery, allegedly pointed a gun at the female
customer, causing Nieves to pick up his shotgun and fire at the robber,
police said. One blow tore into Ingram’s left cheek, killing him, said
Police News Affairs Officer Edward Alonzo.
Police said Thursday they would not file charges against Nieves.
Last year, Nieves had another brush with death when a robber held a gun
to his head and pulled the trigger just as the shopkeeper moved his
head; his ear was nicked by a bullet, said neighbor Elias Morales.
“Shorty was a good person. We need more people like him in this
neighborhood,” said Morales, 17. “He must have been scared. I know he
wouldn’t want to hurt anybody.”
Another neighbor said: “He’s been robbed so many times. He had to defend
himself. It was bound to happen.”
An hour after the shooting, Ingram’s family gathered on 51st Street
across the street from the store. Streaks and smudges of blood marked
the stoop near the doorway where his body had fallen.
Gloria Edwards, of the West Side, said her cousin, Ingram, had been
staying with different relatives in the Chicago area for the last two
months.
She said the shooting was wrong no matter what the circumstances.
“It’s too much to take somebody’s life for money,” she said.
Ingram’s criminal record includes convictions in the last seven years on
charges of mob action, assault, attempted aggravated battery and
attempted armed robbery in Winnebago County, according to the Winnebago
County Circuit Clerk’s Office.
