A female business owner in Chicago managed to fight off three armed attackers with a firearm of her own when her business was assaulted in an attempted armed robbery in the wee hours of the morning on Thursday, January 4th. The attackers fled after the female shop owner returned their gunfire with her personal firearm.
The incident occurred, according to the Chicago police, at about 4:35 in the morning on Thursday the 4th. Then, the V’s Convenience Store owned by Ms. Vanessa Harris was attacked by three armed male suspects who shattered the window of the convenience store, located in the city’s Woodlawn neighborhood, and barged into the store.
They then started stealing merchandise from the convenience store, at which point Ms. Harris arrived to open up the business for the day. Predictably, she confronted the trio of robbers who were attempting to steal from her business. Then one of the three drew a handgun and fired a shot at Ms. Harris, escalating the situation dramatically.
But, fortunately for her, Ms. Harris was armed. After the one man fired at her, she drew her own handgun, which she has a concealed carry license for and carries legally for personal protection, and opened fire, getting into a brief shootout with the armed men. They soon fled from the business and escaped the scene of the crime in a white sedan.
In a statement on the incident to Fox News Digital, the Chicago Police Department said, “The victim, a 40-year-old female, observed the offenders exiting the business and related one of the offenders produced a firearm and opened fire in her direction. The victim related she shot back. The victim was not struck by gunfire, and it does not appear at this time that any of the offenders were struck.”
Commenting on the situation to the media, Ms. Harris described the brief shootout, with the one suspect firing at her and her returning fire, saying, “I was kinda nervous, thinking like, ‘Are they going to shoot again?’ But then I realized he did it as a scare shot, and they ran off from the store. I just fired back and two more ran out on foot.”
She also noted that the crime problem adds yet another difficulty to the already challenging task of running a business, saying, “It’s not easy running a business, you know, so I’m really frustrated, and I’m hoping that the police get involved. I really feel hurt and violated.”
She added that crime is proving a massive financial burden for her store, both because of stolen merchandise and because she has to close early for personal safety reasons, thus missing out on potential profits because it is so dangerous to stay open past the early evening. Speaking about that, she said, “I’m losing so much being on this corner. I’m closing up. I got some of my customers complaining now about me closing at 5:30, 6 o’clock, but it’s only due to my safety.”
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