Tonight, 19-year-old Ashton Samuels is dead after he was shot trying to escape from Jacky's store in Western Paradise. Samuels and three others had robbed the place but weren't prepared for the lethal firepower that one store employee responded with.
Cherisse Halsall was on the scene in the aftermath of that robbery and of Samuels' shooting death, she brings us this story from the 8-mile community.
This is Jacky's Fast Food and Supermarket at 8:00 miles where this morning a robbery in progress was stopped when the store owner pulled his gun and shot both the robbers - leaving one dead and the other with a gunshot to the foot.
An eyewitness who almost became collateral damage gave the account.
Gerald Gillette - Eyewitness
"I was over there; I was sitting over there, and a gentleman came on that bicycle that you see lying down on the cement there and grabbed me and was trying to pull me into the shop. Went in and he came back, and he ran down the street back that way, that is all I saw. When the fellow went down that way after that I heard gunshots and I saw the owner of the shop, the Chinese come out with blood over his head and coming down his face and all that. He ran down the street that way."
And what Gillette didn't say is that there were four robbers and that while one was using him as a human shield another was disarming the store owner of his 9-millimetre pistol. They then headed for the kitchen where they knocked out and robbed the cook.
But it was while they were attempting to jump the fence that he regained consciousness, ran to the back of the building, and fired at them with his licensed firearm. That's when he killed Ashton Samuels while shooting Tyler Ramclam to the foot.
Cherisse Halsall
"Sir, when you say they grabbed you do you think that they were attempting to take you hostage?"
Gerald Gillete
"Well, I don't know what was his intention but he pulled me a little into the shop and after that he went in and he came out and he ran gone, I got up and I came back out and I sat down where I was."
Gillete's assailant and another man got away through these swampy bushes where the officers from a nearby police booth lost them in the reeds.
Gillete says he's been a constant observer of Jacky's, sitting on this bench for the last three or four years - and he knows the storeowner is strapped and ready.
Gerald Gillete
"I know the Chinese man has a gun and I was made to understand that the young ladies also have guns under the counter but it's not something that I know or I see."
And it seems that robber Ashton Samuels - who was killed knew that too. He came prepared wearing a bulletproof vest. Still, it didn't save him because he seems to have gotten shot in the skull.
But it wasn't Ashton's first time carrying the weight of that vest. This photo of him lounging on a couch with two firearms was taken some time ago, and we know that in 2019, he was arrested for "being in possession of an unregistered bullet proof vest". And while Samuels went into this robbery ready for battle, he wasn't as prepared as the crew at Jacky's.
That may be because they've known violence before, with one of their delivery men killed in a shooting just last February.
It's the kind of thing that causes widespread concern in the country at large but also within the Chinese community. And shortly after the shooting we met association president Johnston Ou right on scene waiting for information and to console and calm his members.
And back on the other side of the caution tape, this eyewitness who had been moved out by the police was trying to figure out who the robber might have been and where on the premises he'd died.
Gerald Gillete
"That person probably went into the Chinese yard because there was somebody in there who got shot and I don't know who it was because they wouldn't allow me to go in. So, I don't know who it was, but I know that somebody got shot. Now, people are claiming that my grandson whose name is Tyler came out, I did not see my grandson out here at all this morning so I would just like to clear that up that my son was not out here. As far as I'm concerned if I go to rob me and you shoot me, I deserve it and as far as I'm concerned laziness is one of the worst diseases because by the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread."
Cherisse Halsall
"Sir, in the event that you found out that your grandson was involved in this situation, what would you think then?"
Gerald Gillete
"Well, I would, If he's connected with these things. I would feel very ashamed of him. I try to talk to him to go look for a job, go look for a job, because you have a child, you have two daughters and you have to mind them, you should not expect anybody else to be minding your children."
But Gillette couldn't speak anymore; his daughter stepped in to walk him away from the cameras - and from what she may have known that his grandson Tyler was an alleged robber.
The robbers collectively got away with $1,700.00, and two of them remain at large.
Jacky's store owner was treated and released from the KHMH for a cut to the head, while robber Tyler Ramclam remains admitted in a stable condition. The body of 19-year-old Ashton Samuels remains at the morgue.
