Armed robber shot dead by grocer

Originally ran here as:
GUNMAN FATALLY SHOT BY GROCER
By Diana Strzalka
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
April 13, 2001

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- A South Side grocery owner, who neighbors said had been robbed repeatedly over the years, Thursday morning shot and killed an armed robber when the gunman turned toward a customer, police said.

Just before 10 a.m., Tyrone Ingram, 32, of Rockford, walked into Cidras Super Market in the 2000 block of West 51st Street, pointed a gun at a 42-year-old female cashier and announced a stickup, police said.

The 57-year-old shopkeeper, Anselmo Nieves, better known as Shorty, handed over the cash drawer and cigarettes, police said. Ingram then allegedly hit Nieves over the head knocking him to the floor.

When a customer walked in, Ingram, a man with a criminal record that included attempted armed robbery, allegedly pointed a gun at the female customer, causing Nieves to pick up his shotgun and fire at the robber, police said. One blow tore into Ingram's left cheek, killing him, said Police News Affairs Officer Edward Alonzo.

Police said Thursday they would not file charges against Nieves.

Last year, Nieves had another brush with death when a robber held a gun to his head and pulled the trigger just as the shopkeeper moved his head; his ear was nicked by a bullet, said neighbor Elias Morales.

"Shorty was a good person. We need more people like him in this neighborhood," said Morales, 17. "He must have been scared. I know he wouldn't want to hurt anybody."

Another neighbor said: "He's been robbed so many times. He had to defend himself. It was bound to happen."

An hour after the shooting, Ingram's family gathered on 51st Street across the street from the store. Streaks and smudges of blood marked the stoop near the doorway where his body had fallen.

Gloria Edwards, of the West Side, said her cousin, Ingram, had been staying with different relatives in the Chicago area for the last two months.

She said the shooting was wrong no matter what the circumstances.

"It's too much to take somebody's life for money," she said.

Ingram's criminal record includes convictions in the last seven years on charges of mob action, assault, attempted aggravated battery and attempted armed robbery in Winnebago County, according to the Winnebago County Circuit Clerk's Office.

KABA NOTE:  Gloria Edwards is a self-centered, small-minded, wrongheaded sociopath who is incapable of dealing with reality. This world is a better place with that rapscallion 6 feet under.  We commend the grocer for ridding the city of a lowlife, and we are glad the only one hurt was the parasitic animal. Good riddance. Let's hope the next thug who attempts to rob someone at gunpoint in Chicago is equally as successful.  The grocer deserves a Good Citizen Award and a plaque commemorating his well-timed shot placement and the service he provided his community.

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