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Crime against businesses may be on an upswing, but so are the numbers of business owners fighting back. Last week Modesto Madrill single handedly fought off a gunman with a machete and last night it was Ladyville Gas Station owner Charles McIntosh firing back at jackers. McIntosh has been robbed at least 6 times and he has even been shot which is why last night when two men approached him and demanded money he had just about had enough. Keith Swift has the story.
Keith Swift Reporting, [keithkswift@gmail.com]
When 56-year-old Charles McIntosh and his nephew Nathan arrived home around 10:45 last night, it was to a terrifying sight.
Nathan McIntosh,
"Well last night after we got home we got out of the truck and I noticed it was a real bright night last night and the dogs were barking so I checked on the shrimp ponds to see if anyone was thieving shrimps from us. So as I walked around to the next truck the guy popped up and he said freeze and he swears. He says, 'oh I see you,' he is saying that to Charlie. So he starts going after him (Charlie) and I hear a shot and I hear a couple shots from Charlie and so I knew he was shooting after the guy. I also saw a next guy dressed in a black shirt, a black cap and, a black bandanna and I just moved back even further because I thought if they had scoped the place they would have known I was in the garage so I moved back even further.
At first I wasn't really scared, I noticed him, and I didn't want to move because I saw his next buddy behind him, and then I ran into the garage there and that is when I felt my tongue go numb. My tongue just went numb and I guess that's how scared I was."
And while Nathan hid in the garage, his uncle faced off with the robber, gun to gun. The gunman had his sawed off shotgun and Charles McIntosh had his licensed 38 revolver.
Charles McIntosh, Shot Robber
"Two armed guys jumped out with masks and one was brandishing a shotgun and took a shot at me and I returned fire and shot him. Simple as that."
The gunman got off one round from his sawed-off and the only damage done might have been this bullet hole left in McIntosh's pickup. McIntosh meanwhile fired off 6 shots and 5 of them caught the gunman.
Nathan McIntosh,
"Charlie mentioned that he got one of them. So as the guys laid there
they called the cops. The cops showed up and then they called the ambulance to get there and the man was taken in the ambulance after they checked out how many bullet holes he had in him. I guess he had a grouping in his chest, and I heard he got one in his arm, and possibly one in his leg. I can't say for sure about the one in the leg but Charlie got a pretty good shot: five out of six."
Charles McIntosh,
"I was trained to react that way, that came very natural. Everyone who decides if they want to hit us here, we are not a sitting duck. They might get a little jewelry off the girls but the chances of them laying in the dirt, dying, for a few pennies, because that's all we have since between the two of us we didn't have a dollar."
Keith Swift,
You messed up this guy pretty badly, he is in the hospital right now. You regret shooting him?
Charles McIntosh,
"Unfortunately when he was laying there I did feel bad for the boy, he obviously was in really really bad shape and I think any human would feel bad. After saying that, I don't have any remorse-they came trying to kill me, not the other way around. The boy was lying on the ground, basically dying, begging for a little bit of water."
Keith Swift,
Did you give him the water?
Charles McIntosh,
"Yes I did give him water. Unfortunately he put himself there, I didn't."
Keith Swift,
Would you do it again, shoot him?
Charles McIntosh,
"I didn't have any choice then. If I had a choice then I wouldn't have done it but unfortunately I didn't."
And McIntosh says he had no choice but to fight gunfire with gunfire because last night wasn't the first or the second time he or his gas station in Ladyville
was the target of armed robbers. In fact just last week two men held up and robbed his gas station. And just last year McIntosh himself was shot during a robbery at his gas station.
Charles McIntosh,
"Its not the first time that we have robbed either. The last time I got shot here because I didn't have my gun with me. I do now."
Keith Swift,
Tell me about the lesson you learnt from the last time?
Charles McIntosh,
"Belize was a different place then. I used to be around all the time without carrying a weapon, we didn't need it because it was a more gentler time but its not now. Now you have to be prepared and if you are in business, if you don't carry a gun you should."
Nathan McIntosh,
"It has to make you stronger because what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
Keith Swift,
I guess you're pretty proud of your uncle.
Nathan McIntosh,
"Oh yeah. I feel a lot safer with him, even with his left hand. You don't want to mess with him."
The alleged robber who was shot is 21-year-old Belize City resident Darron Waight. He is in under police guard at the KHMH with bullet wounds to his left chest and left shoulder. His accomplice hightailed it from the scene and is still on the loose tonight. 7NEWS understands that police know who they are looking for since Waight has already given them a name.
