Thief Finds Out Vet Was Not A Chump

From Right To Bear Blog:

89-year-old WWII Vet Shoots Thief 6 Times

These are the kinds of pro-gun stories anti-gun advocates really don’t want Americans to hear.

When 89-year-old Arthur M. Lewis was working at his jewelry shop, he was accosted by a 44-year-old suspect, a man nearly half his age.

The decorated survivor of numerous pacific theater battles was not about to be taken down by someone half his age, and he certainly wasn’t going to let the fact that the gun-wielding assailant came in armed stop him in his tracks.

While Lewis was behind the counter, the would-be thief came in and pulled out a revolver on the “old man.”

As soon as the gun was out, he grabbed the man’s revolver and the instinctively pulled out his own pistol.

Lewis had a .38 caliber handgun  he used to defend himself, and soon, the situation escalated into a full-on physical fight. Wrestling around with the man, Lewis managed to shoot him 6 times, while the attacker managed to squeeze of a few shots as well.

“I thought he was going to kill me as soon as I saw the gun,” Lewis told The Palm Beach Post on Monday afternoon. “I thought, ‘This time, I’m dead.’ ”

As the Atlantic Journal – Constitution noted, this wasn’t the first time he’s had a scuffle of this nature.

On Jan. 5, 2010, Brandon Jerard Johnson, 20, of Riviera Beach was arrested on charges of robbery with a firearm and attempted felony murder after he walked into The Jewelry Exchange and fired a shot point-blank at Lewis.

Lewis responded with five shots from his own gun, but no one was hurt.

So this wasn’t Lewis’s first rodeo.

The more recent armed confrontation involved a man identified as Lennard Patrick Jervis. And although Lewis shot Jervis multiple times, the situation remained tense throughout.

Lewis said Jervis continued to fight with vigor, even with four gunshot wounds to the chest and one each to the wrist and leg. Large bullet holes remained in the store’s walls Monday and the area behind the counter where Lewis and Jervis fought hand to hand was trashed.

“People think because he’s 89, he’s frail,” said Vivien Bresnahan, Lewis’ girlfriend. “That irritates me because he’s anything but (frail).”

Incidentally Jervis was able to stumble away from the scene, and even had Lewis buzz him out of the jewelry store. “I was so glad to get rid of him,” said Lewis, who has been in business for 20 years. “I’d had enough of him.”

Lewis was also shot in the scuffle, but the bullet only managed to graze his arm and he was not seriously injured.