(SC) Vendor kills career criminal who tried to rob him 01-09-02

March 1st, 2012

http://www.charleston.net/pub/news/local/brea0109.htm
Bread delivery truck driver shoots holdup man Wednesday, January 9, 2002
BY GLENN SMITH
Of The Post and Courier Staff
          A bread vendor shot and killed an
18-year-old man who tried to rob him Tuesday morning as he made a
delivery to a Harris Teeter supermarket on James Island, Charleston
police said.
          Police said Jay Baldwin Wrenn, a former
Hanahan police officer, grabbed a gun from his pickup truck and shot the
robber twice in the chest. The robber claimed to have a gun, but police
found only a pair of pliers in the man’s jacket, police Chief Reuben
Greenberg said.
          Investigators have determined that Wrenn,
27, acted in self-defense, Greenberg said. He was not arrested, and
Greenberg said he would not support any effort to charge Wrenn with a
crime.
          ”No crime has been committed, and you
can’t charge someone if no crime has been committed,” he said. “If
people decide to engage in armed robbery, they take a chance. It’s a
highly risky occupation.”
          Authorities identified the dead man as
Tyrone McDaniel of Riley Road, which is a few blocks from the Folly Road
supermarket. McDaniel had a “substantial” criminal record and is
suspected of robbing two other vendors at the supermarket in the past
two weeks, Greenberg said.
          McDaniel died at Medical University
Hospital shortly after the shooting, Charleston County Deputy Coroner
Bobbi Jo O’Neal said.
          Investigators say a man approached Wrenn
as he was delivering bread in the rear of Harris Teeter at 8 a.m. The
man motioned with his hand under his jacket as if he had a gun and told
Wrenn to “give me your money or I’ll blast you,” police said.
          The robber then walked Wrenn back to his
pickup truck so the vendor could get his wallet from the glove
compartment, which also contained a .38-caliber revolver, police said.
State law allows pistol owners to carry their guns in vehicles, as long
as the weapons are secured in a closed glove box, console or trunk.
          ”Mr. Wrenn, fearing for his life, reached
inside the glove compartment, grabbed his revolver and shot the
perpetrator twice,” Greenberg said.
          Greenberg said standard police training
calls for officers to fire twice, or “double tap,” targets. He described
Tuesday’s shooting as a “range-type shot.”
          ”He fired only the shots that appeared to
be necessary,” he said.
          When police arrived at the supermarket,
they found Wrenn clutching his revolver in one hand and a cell phone in
the other. McDaniel lay on his back at Wrenn’s feet. Wrenn was ordered
to drop the weapon and lie on the ground, which he did.
          He was then handcuffed for a short time
until police could determine what happened, according to a police
report.
          Charleston police didn’t know how long
Wrenn served as a police officer, and Hanahan authorities could not be
reached for comment. Wrenn declined to comment on the incident.
          After speaking with police, Wrenn left the
area with his father. His sister, Rhonda Metts, remained behind to
finish loading bread into the supermarket.
          ”I feel relieved Jay is OK and it turned
out the way it did,” Metts said.
          She said she was worried, but not
surprised, when she learned _someone had tried to rob her _brother.
“In this business, it’s bound to happen sooner or later because we
work in the dark in the early morning hours,” she said.
          In the past two weeks, two vendors were
robbed at Harris Teeter. A Krispy Kreme deliveryman was robbed on Dec.
29, and another vendor was robbed Monday, Greenberg said.
          Monday’s victim, who reported the crime to
police on Tuesday, identified McDaniel as the man who robbed him after
looking at a photo line-up, Greenberg said. The Krispy Kreme deliveryman
had not been contacted Tuesday, but words used by the robber in that
crime were identical to those by McDaniel Tuesday morning, he said.
          McDaniel, who would have turned 19 on
Friday, had a lengthy criminal record as a juvenile, with arrests for
vandalism, auto theft, assault and possession of stolen property,
Greenberg said. As an adult, he was convicted of criminal domestic
violence in August 2000 and was awaiting trial on similar charges,
according to State Law Enforcement Division records.
          A woman who answered the phone at
McDaniel’s home Tuesday afternoon said the family was “in distress” and
was unavailable for comment.
          Mike Mock, another bread vendor who is a
friend of Wrenn, said it was senseless for someone to try to rob vendors
because they operate by charge accounts and carry little cash.
          ”It just makes you mad that this had to
happen, especially when we don’t carry nothing but pocket change,” he
said.
          ”Unless he had some personal money on him,
there was probably nothing there.”

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(SC) Vendor kills career criminal who tried to rob him 01-09-02