From: Thomas A Chandler, [EMAIL PROTECTED] BRAVE SHOPKEEPERS PAY PRICE OF SELF-DEFENSE THERE were two things Garfield Hart could say about the massacre that occurred at Wendy's. "The same thing almost happened to me." And "I can't comment. You're going to have to call my lawyer." Unlike the five dead Wendy's workers, Hart was able to utter those words because, police believe, he pumped a bullet into the chest of a robber inside his Flatbush Avenue electronics store on Jan. 6. He couldn't talk about the shooting death of William Outlaw, who is suspected of committing 13 holdups with a sawed-off shotgun in a three-month period, because Hart has been charged with criminal possession of a handgun. While the city shudders at the massacre of five helpless Wendy's employees, it should also stand behind Hart, who now faces the lifelong scar of a criminal record simply for defending his life. An outlaw marched into the store at 10 a.m. that day and pointed a shotgun at the heads of Hart and his brother, Vibert. He then herded them to a back room where he forced both men to lay on the floor. But Hart and his brother didn't wait to see if Outlaw, who was interested in opening the safe, was going to pull the trigger. The brothers fought back and, after a brief struggle and a gunshot, Outlaw stumbled into the street, where he died. "What are our rights as victims?" asked the 45-year-old owner of a grocery store in Flushing, Queens - about a mile from Wendy's - who's been robbed numerous times. The grocery owner doesn't want his name published - he witnessed parts of the shooting death of another punk called Jose Colon, 37, just outside his store. The day before the massacre, Colon and his two friends allegedly robbed Lilly Fu, 27, inside her boyfriend's pager and cell phone business on Kissena Boulevard. The men herded the petite woman to the rear of the store, where they tried to bind her hands with duct tape. She fought back, using all her powers to survive - she even stabbed one of the robbers in the hand with a pen. "If you see her, you'll see she has a large bruise on the side of her face," said the grocer. As the crooks fled, Fu fired two shots from a licensed gun at the getaway car. A bullet slammed into Colon's neck and his accomplices left him bleeding to death several blocks away. "She did the right thing," said the store owner, who is upset that Fu, who was briefly detained by police, is the subject of an investigation by the Queens District Attorney's office instead of being touted as a heroine. Fu and Hart could have conceivably been registered as statistics, like the victims at Wendy's who were led to a basement freezer, bound with duct tape and killed like dogs. The real animals are John Taylor and Craig Godineaux, who yesterday walked into a Queens courtroom breathing the air God created, breathing the air they are accused of taking away from five Wendy's employees. Behind these accused killers were reporters and the general public who want to take their breath away because of the heinous crime they stand charged with. Fu and Hart will one day breathe the same air as these accused killers when they walk into a courtroom to defend their right to survive. Reporters and the general public won't be behind them at that time - it will be their loved ones who are glad they didn't end up like the employees of the Wendy's restaurant in Queens. -------[Cybershooters contacts]-------- Editor: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website & subscription info: www.cybershooters.org
