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Storekeeper, 74, hailed as hero Man who killed robber won't face charges
BYLINE: BILL MONTGOMERY, SAEED AHMED, STAFF
DATE: 01-11-2003
PUBLICATION: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
EDITION: Home
SECTION: News
PAGE: A.1
Two-and-a-half years ago, J.C. Adams made an ominous prediction after killing an armed robber in his convenience store with a shotgun blast.
"There's always some fool who's going to come back," the 74-year- old Adams said.
Late Thursday night, Adams, leaning on a walker, shuffled from the back office of his DeKalb County store with his 12-gauge shotgun and killed another gunman. A second robbery suspect was wounded, and Adams held a third suspect outside until police arrived.
By Friday morning, Adams, the owner of the Pac A Sac store at 2615 Lawrenceville Highway for 26 years, was being hailed as sort of a John Wayne in a walker. One customer delivered a box of Winchester shotgun shells with a note: "Thank you Mr. Adams --- You are a hero."
Said customer Tom Apsey, who works nearby: "I'm glad he got 'em."
Adams, who said he has been robbed 12 times during his 26 years at the store and burglarized three times in the past three months, will not face criminal charges, police said.
The store owner has no regrets about the slaying.
"If that's the way they want to live, they have to take their chances," said Adams, who was back at the store early Friday. "All I want to do is run my little store and serve my customers. If you leave me alone, you'll be OK."
His advice for anyone else considering robbing his store: "Go to work and make your own money. Quit trying to take mine."
Adams was in a tiny rear office about 10:45 p.m. Thursday when he looked up at a security monitor to see an armed, masked gunman jump the counter, force the clerk to the floor and stuff cash from the register into a bag.
Adams grabbed his shotgun with one hand, his walker with the other and headed for the front. He said the bandits spotted him as he approached the potato chip display and they started to run.
According to the police report: "The subjects bunched up at the door, one of them then turned toward the inside of the store."
Adams fired a single blast.
"I don't think he was going to take a shot at me, but I don't know," he said. "But if you hesitate, you're dead."
Police identified the slain man as Cameron Lemont Glover, 17, of Clarkston. His brother, Leonard Glover, 19, also of Clarkston, was wounded and hospitalized in stable condition. The woman was identified as Tammy Crystal Jones, 17, also of Clarkston.
DeKalb police Sgt. T.E. Stewart said Adams would not be charged. He did not need a gun license because the business is considered an extension of the home. "You've got a right to defend your property," Stewart said. "He's crippled, he's obviously on a walker, you know, he's in fear of his life."
Adams' cool-headedness may stem from a May 30, 2000, robbery when Leroy Holt, 32, of Decatur shot Adams through the buttocks before Holt was killed by a blast to the chest.
Holt, who had served a three-year prison stretch for armed robbery, was on probation for a drug conviction.
In that robbery, Holt and an accomplice forced the clerk to the floor at gunpoint. Adams watched the crime on the security monitor in the back room, then came out. He was using a cane at the time.
Because Adams runs his own store, the Pac A Sac is more likely to be a target than stores run by large companies, according to a study by a San Diego State University professor.
Sociologist Rosemary Erickson surveyed nearly 1,000 armed robbers in prison and learned they target the mom and pop stores because they typically have more money in the cash register than the chain stores.
At the same time, she found that robbers expect the single-store owners to be armed.
Many national store chains prohibit employees from having weapons and advise them against resisting robbery attempts. Margaret Chabris, public relations director for Dallas-based 7-Eleven, said research over many years "points to a nonresistance policy as the best policy to protect people's lives and their safety."
Gary Kleck, a Florida State University criminology professor, says national surveys show that people who use guns for self- defense in a robbery are less likely to be injured. His research has not looked specifically at store robberies, but he said a store may be "a more victim-friendly environment" because the storekeeper is more familiar with the surroundings.
Rob Wilcox, spokesman for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, said statistics on the use of guns to defend stores are vague. He said the center supports the safe use of firearms for self-defense but argued the presence of a gun increases the risk of injury.
After Thursday's shooting, Adams called his wife, Mary. "I'm OK; I didn't get hurt," he told her. "I got him."
Mary Adams said she collapsed in a chair.
"He's not cavalier about [the slain robbers] or their lives," said Adams' wife of more than 45 years. "He just hates it that they put him in this position where he has to defend himself, the people who work for him, and his business from people with guns who threaten their lives and what he's worked so hard for."
She said her husband strives to open the grocery store every day, including Christmas and New Year's.
Except for two years in the Army during the Korean War, Adams has never worked at anything else.
"I've been in the grocery store business for more than 40 years," he said.
Asked if he had any thought of retiring, he said: "I'm going to retire when I get old enough." And how old is that? "I'm in it for life."
Staff writers Bill Torpy and David Simpson contributed to this article.
