Newspaper Carrier Kills Gunman At Birmingham Store Clerk Says Man Saved
Newspaper Carrier Kills Gunman At Birmingham Store Clerk Says Man Saved
His Life
http://www.nbc13.com/news/1709428/detail.html
POSTED: 3:12 p.m. CDT October 8, 2002
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A newspaper carrier filling racks at a convenience
store became a hero to the clerk by gunning down a robber who had put a
shotgun to the clerk’s head.
Sam Harper, 43, was filling racks with Monday’s edition of The
Birmingham News when he saw a man put on a wig, burst into the store
screaming and aim a shotgun only inches away from clerk Tom Burtnett.
Harper grabbed his gun, went inside and fired.
“I just reacted,” Harper said. “It was total chaos and it was pretty
terrifying.”
“I think Sam saved my life, no doubt about it,” said Burtnett. “I was
looking down the barrel of a shotgun and a shotgun don’t miss.”
Burtnett, a 53-year-old former police officer, has shot three others
during the past six years, killing one with a shot to the chest.
The dead man was not immediately identified. Harper gave his statement
to police summoned to the Chevron store, a frequent target of would-be
robbers.
Harper said it was about 3:20 a.m. when he saw the man with the shotgun
and wig.
“The guy was berserk,” Harper told the News. “He was screaming his guts
out.”
Entering the store, Harper fired three times at the gunman, who dropped
his shotgun but didn’t fall.
“He ran toward me and I shot him twice more,” said Harper. “After five
he fell down. But then he got up again.”
The wounded man, still hollering, crawled to the back of the store and
died, witnesses told the News.
Burtnett said that even though four would-be robbers have been shot in
recent years, the store at 8730 First Ave. North remains a likely
target.
“Crackheads don’t care,” he said. “Do you think they read the newspaper
and watch television? No.”
Harper, who has delivered newspapers for 22 years, took a nap after the
events subsided, then got up to finish his route after sunrise.
