Clerk foils robbery.(Exercising The Right)

Shortly before 8 p.m. on March 24 in the Queens, New York, town of Jamaica, Ramon Food Market clerk Edwin Marte was watching television during a lull in business. Just then a man, later identified as Devin Keitt, entered the bodega, donned a black ski mask, and shouted, "Holdup!" several times.

Marte quickly pulled a .38-caliber revolver from under the counter and pointed it at the thug. He later told Newsday, "We pointed guns at each other. He got scared and I got scared ... I don't know what his intention was but I didn't want to kill him."

Marte heard three clicks as Keitt tried to fire his weapon. Then Marte pulled the trigger of his own gun once, but in the turmoil did not realize that he had hit Keitt. In fact, the frightened clerk momentarily thought that he himself may have been shot. Then he saw the magazine from the gunman's firearm fall to the floor, alter which Keitt turned and fled, knocking over a shelf of snacks on the way out. "He ran off like a madman," Marte recalled for Newsday.

Marte's bullet had found its mark, entering behind Keitt's ear and exiting the back of his head (but missing his brain). The wounded man ran about a block-and-a-half before collapsing. He was taken to a local medical center in stable condition and was expected to survive. He faces attempted robbery, menacing and weapon violation charges that could bring up to 15 years in prison. At the time of the robbery attempt, he was on parole, having ...