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Sun 11 Nov, 2007 10:16 pm
Store owner who fought off robber with machete
speaks outIt happened in the Woodhaven section of Queens
Eyewitness News
(New York - WABC, November 8, 2007) - A would-be robber remains hospitalized
after a bodega owner fought him off with a machete in Woodhaven, Queens, Wednesday night.
Now, we're hearing from the store owner for the first time.
Eyewitness News reporter Nina Pineda has his story.
It was hand-to-hand combat in an all-out, bloody brawl.
We asked the store owner if he'd do anything differently. He said next time, he'd have two machetes.
"Whether it was to rob or to kill him, but then after he hit him with the machete,
the robber said, 'Just call the cops, please just call the cops,'" Johann Marte
said through his translator, Queens Assemblyman Jose Peralta.
Hiding his face for now, in case someone seeks revenge, the bodega
owner justified reducing the robber to a bloody mess last night.
"He pulled his gun, I pulled my machete and we went to war," Marte said.
Marte, a father of four, said the alleged criminal walked in his Woodhaven
corner store with guns blazing, then wound up begging him to call the police.
"He was aiming for the gun," Peralta said. "As soon as he saw the gun,
he was aiming for the gun, and that's all he was aiming for. He started
swinging away at the gun, and it was lucky for him he ended up hitting the hand."
Marte's machete slashed the gun-toting bandit's trigger finger off, along with part of his ear,
in a battle witnesses believe the suspect deserved.
"He had to protect himself," one said. "You do what you can."
Local legislators warn store owners not to fight violence with violence.
They're pushing for bodega safety measures, like panic buttons,
connected to local precincts.
"He was very lucky to endure what he did, but we want to teach bodega
owners not to do what he did," Peralta said. "Because unfortunately, nine
times out of 10, they will end up dead."
Still, an eye-for-an-eye, says Marte,
who was fired at four times before his machete beat the bullets.
"I came here to work, to work hard, and I work hard everyday," Marte said
through Peralta. "And I had to defend myself, and that's what I did."
The store has been robbed three times in the past, and it seems the Queens district attorney
will treat this as self-defense and not charge Marte with anything.
The robber-turned-victim is still recovering. He faces a number of charges. [emphasis added by David]
OmSigDAVID, I like you. I think that the ability to defend yourself and others is imperative, but I don't know that gun ownership is necessarily the best way to do so. They seem to lead to more accidental deaths and injuries than they help; on the other hand, I don't think that's a good reason to not allow people to have them. We let them cars, after all, don't we?
some people think slender women are the epitome of beauty, but through history, heavy women were favored. however, if you are going to charge 800 dollars for a handkercheif, the profit is in clothing slender women.
i suppose there is some beauty in self defense, but i think for you, it's just some kind of fetish you have. if you could move past that, the world might be far more beautiful.
although it's easier to profit from people killing each other than from people getting along. it's easier to sell to the unhappy than to the content. it's easier to love yourself than other people, to love your friends than your enemies.
maybe everything is beautiful, but don't shortchange yourself.
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