A criminal in Detroit thought he had chosen an easy mark. The convicted felon followed two men into a Michigan liquor store and then back outside with the apparent intent on robbing them.
That scenario fortunately backfired.
Police in Detroit reported responding to gunshots at the liquor store. A ShotSpotter device alerted them to three shots being fired in the parking lot of Carmen’s Delicatessen shortly before 10 p.m. on Feb. 8.
When they arrived, they found the intended victim with his hands held over his head telling them that he had a concealed carry license.
He reported that two men were standing outside of the store when they entered the establishment. The younger of the pair was wearing a black ski mask and Detroit Lions jacket and followed him and his friend into the store and back out again.
That is not how the situation played out. The legally armed civilian produced the handgun as he was being patted down by the suspect, and then he shot the attempted robber in the chest.
The wounded criminal, later identified by law enforcement as Joshua Fordham, was found by responding officers on the ground nearby suffering from a gunshot wound. Police believe the weapon he carried malfunctioned.
Detroit media reported that the suspect pled guilty in 2014 to armed robbery and was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison. Fordham was sentenced to an additional two years on a felony firearm violation. He is not legally able to own a weapon and faces an additional charge for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Detroit police confirm that surveillance video supported the account of the would-be victims in the attempted robbery.
Criminals rarely choose their intended victims randomly, and the last thing they want or even expect is armed resistance. There is no doubt that the suspect thought the pair he chose to follow at the Michigan liquor store would be compliant and leave him with a profitable evening.
However, they flipped the script on the suspect as one of them had the foresight and courage to be prepared.
Foresight is needed, of course, to go through the process of obtaining a concealed carry license to be legally capable of carrying a firearm in the state. But it’s also an act of courage, even when prepared, to stand up to a violent armed criminal and defend yourself.
On what was no doubt a cool night in the northern state, the concealed carry holder set out to go to a store. In the process, he had the wisdom to know that the city is beset with violence and to be ready for anything. As is clear, that choice may have saved both his and his friend’s lives.
As recent actions by the federal and several state governments prove, many of our nation’s leaders do not have faith in the basic principle of self-defense.
Their convictions hold that being legally armed and prepared to face an unexpected violent scenario is not a fundamental right of all law-abiding American citizens.
Thankfully for the gentleman and his friend in Detroit, they did not agree.
These are eye-opening incidents that the mainstream media would like nothing more than to ignore. It was weeks before this violent confrontation made the news, and in the meantime, the public was treated to stories of criminals inflicting harm on civilians as a clear argument against gun rights.
But as has been often proven, gun control does not reach down to the perpetrators of violence. All the misguided new regulations in the world will only serve to strip needed firearms away from law-abiding citizens. Thankfully, in yet another case, the best efforts of the anti-gun lobby failed, and two men are still around to bear witness.
