Police: Shots appear to be self defense"
by Kelly Bowser and Tom
Demoretcky
Newsday Staff
Writers
July
10, 2001
A retired New
York City correction officer working as a gas station attendant in North
Bellmore yesterday shot and killed a robber who appeared to be armed with a gun,
Nassau police said.
Police
identified the attendant as Bruce W. Longley, 64, and said he had retired from
the corrections department 22 years ago.
Det. Lt.
Frank Guidice, head of Nassau's Homicide Squad, said the robber was armed with
what appeared to be a pistol. He declined to elaborate until the gun is examined
to determine if it is real.
Police said
the shooting came after the robber, who was unidentified last night, had cleared
out a cash drawer and was looking for more money.
Guidice said
Longley was carrying a licensed 40-cal. semiautomatic pistol in the rear
waistband of his pants. He said the robber saw a bulge in the back of Longley's
trousers and asked about it. Longley then took out the pistol and fired three
shots, hitting the man at least twice in the chest.
"It
appears that he acts in defense of himself,” Guidice said of Longley.
"However, the district attorney will make the final determination of
whether the shooting was justified.”
Longley could
not be reached for comment last night.
The
confrontation took place inside the convenience store area of the Mobil station
at Newbridge Road and Columbus Avenue shortly before 12:30 p.m.
The robber
showed what appeared to be a gun and said, "Let me have the money,”
Guidice said. Longley opened the register and the robber took the cash inside.
Then, Guidice said, the robber walked behind the counter, saw the bulge in
Longley's pants and said, "What do you have there?”
"We're
assuming that he may have seen the outline of the gun,” Guidice said.
Guidice said
that at that point Longley pulled out his loaded gun, instantly pulled back the
weapon's slide to move a bullet from its magazine to the chamber, and fired
three shots.
"He
feels he's about to be shot. He's also concerned because he knows he [the
robber] has a gun on him,” Guidice said.
Police said
the man initially had asked to use the telephone at the station, walked out of
the store to the telephone and came back in with the gun. Longley told police it
looked like a silver semi-automatic pistol, they said. Police would not say how
much money was in the register.
A customer
who would not give his name but said he had been coming to the station for 12
years, said he had teased Longley in the past about his carrying the gun to
work.
"He said
sometimes you never know -- you never know when somebody could come in,” the
man said. "There comes a point when you've got to defend yourself.”
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