BJ Lutz and Natalie Martinez report for Channel 5 NBC Chicago that on April 10, 2013, at about 5:30 p.m., two black men walked into Quizhpe’s Gifts & Sports, in the 2200 block of North Western Avenue in Chicago’s Logan Square, intent on robbing the store.
One of the two men had a gun.
But they had idea what they were in for.
Shop owner Luis Aucaquizhpi had been robbed in the past and was in no mood to be a victim. He and his brother-in-law, 62-year-old Luis Quizphe, furiously fought back with an assault weapon — a baseball bat — as you can see in this video taken by the store surveillance cameras.
Aucaquizhpi said, “One of the guys, he said, ‘Give me the money or you are dead,’ and after that I was close to him and I tried to hit him with the bat, and the other guy he started shooting.”
Quizphe fended off the gunman with a baseball bat for a moment before the shooter tried to run away. Little did the robber know, however, that customers need to be buzzed in and out of the store. Seeing that they couldn’t get out, one of the attackers returned to the counter and continued shooting.
Aucaquizhpi is seen in the video tossing a stool at the gunman and later chasing him with a fire extinguisher after the two robbers buzzed themselves out of the shop.
Quizphe was shot in the leg during the ordeal and was listed in good condition at Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital. The man with the gun appears to also have shot his accomplice. Police said they found 10 shell casings on the floor.
Quizphe’s son, Juan, credited God for being on his dad’s side: “I thank God that nothing worse happened to him, that he’s alive. I’m grateful for that.”
Police said no arrests had been made in the case as of Wednesday afternoon. After getting away, the men, whom Aucaquizhpi described only as being black men, ran north on Western Avenue and then west on Belden Avenue before getting into a gray car.
***
I am shocked! Just shocked!
Chicago has strict gun-control laws, requiring all firearms to be registered with the police department, and all gun owners to have a Chicago Firearm Permit. So how did the punk get hold of a gun to rob Quizhpe’s Gifts & Sports — and in broad daylight!
Snark.
Will Rahm Emanuel now demand a ban on owning baseball bats?
Smirk.
~Eowyn