Good for those courageous store owners; I'd be hesitant to fight back against multiple thugs with handguns if all I had was pepper spray. Also, I don't think it's fair to describe someone who is confronted by an attacker with lethal force and then defends themselves with a firearm as a "vigilante". "Vigilante" implies unlawfully enacting one's own sense of justice, not self defense. The unfortunate reality is that convenience store owners are frequently victims of crime and there's no way that the police can always be there when they need them.

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Five held in deli heist try charged in second robbery

Wednesday, August 06, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City police have leveled charges in a second robbery against four young men and a boy arrested Sunday as part of a robbery crew armed with guns and bad intentions, officials said.

"They had a fully loaded .22 (caliber handgun), a fully loaded 9mm (handgun), using them in a number of robberies, two in one day," Mayor Jerramiah Healy said yesterday at a press conference at police headquarters. "Most of them are out on bail on other charges."

On Sunday night, Violent Crime Task Force officers at Martin Luther King Drive and Forrest Street arrested a 17-year-old Kennedy Boulevard boy; Michael Moore, 18, of Bidwell Avenue; Jarvis Johnson, 18, of Wegman Parkway; Dean McCovery, 19, of King Drive; and Maurice Williams, 20, of Van Wagenen Avenue, reports said.

They were charged with the attempted armed robbery of the J & L Mini Mart at Old Bergen Road and Bartholdi Avenue at 3:45 p.m. that day, an incident in which the couple who own the store chased them away with punches and pepper spray, reports said.

Yesterday, police announced the five have now also been charged in a gunpoint robbery at 11 a.m. Sunday in the Booker T. Washington public housing complex. And now police are looking into the possibility that at least some of the suspects were involved in as many as three other robberies, reports said.

Healy said the Booker T. victims gave police a description of the cars the robbers used to flee. The bodega owner did the same and even got a partial license plate number.

At 10:25 p.m., Violent Crime Unit officers spotted the cars on King Drive and converged on one car when it pulled into a parking lot. The other car went around the block and when it passed again the officers pulled up beside it and got out with their badges out, yelling "Police," reports said.

Inside that car police found two loaded guns, four stolen credit cards and one photo belonging to a victim, reports said, adding that a necklace found on one of them is also believed to be proceeds from a robbery.

Healy said the victims from both robberies identified the suspects as the robbers.

McCovery had been free on $25,000 bail after his recent arrest on a charge of drug possession with intent to distribute near a school, officials said.

Johnson was free on $50,000 bail following his arrest in Jersey City in April on a robbery charge, officials said.

McCovery and Johnson are being held without bail, officials said, adding that Williams and Moore are being held on $250,000 bails. The juvenile's bail could not be ascertained because he was not identified by police.

First there's a monster in Montauk; now there are five-armed teens in Jersey City.

I'd run scared, too.

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What the police here really have to do is adopt the same kind of "zero tolerance" approach to speeding, loitering and other quality of life crimes that the NYPD took in the mid-1990s.

Vigilantism may make us feel good -- part of me wishes the storekeepers had blown those thugs' brains out -- but I don't think it would do anything whatsoever to improve overall security. Everyone in Baghdad, for example, has a gone, and they might still cut some thieves' hands off, but there is still plenty of crime in Baghdad.

On the other hand: one of the main reasons we have courts and police is to prevent vigilantism.

If the police lose control of the city, they shouldn't be surprised to see that a lot more people here try to take the law into their own hands.

What the police director should have said is "all store owners should keep a loaded shotgun rather than use pepperspray" I think that would have a profound impact on crime in the area. i have a felling these punks know that the most that will happen to them is they will get peppersprayed and be out of jail commiting more crimes by the weekend.

regardless that was great work by the store owners.

Cops: 5 run scared from combative bodega couple

Tuesday, August 05, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Blasts of pepper spray and a few punches had armed robbers running scared from a bodega in Jersey City's Greenville section this weekend.

Cops caught up with five suspects and police say they may be charged in more robberies.

"You have to defend yourself, this is the third time," said Margarita Pena, who was with her husband Tony when five teens tried to rob their J & L Mini Mart at Old Bergen Road and Bartholdi Avenue at 3:45 p.m. Sunday, reports said.

At 10:25 that night, Violent Crime Task Force officers at Martin Luther King Drive and Forest Street arrested a 17-year-old Kennedy Boulevard boy, Michael Moore, 18, of Bidwell Avenue; Jarvis Johnson, 18, of Wegman Parkway; Dean McCovery, 19, of King Drive; and Maurice Williams, 20, of Van Wagenen Avenue, reports said.

Tony Pena said he came around an aisle in the store and saw a gunman standing at the counter pointing the weapon at his wife and another behind the counter ordering her to open the register.

When the man behind the counter came at the husband, he ducked behind a stack of soda and when the robber peeked around, Tony Pena punched him in the face, he said.

The robber in front of the counter then got in the doorway and trained his gun on Tony Pena and the other gunman ordered him to the ground.

That's when Margarita Pena blasted both robbers with pepper spray. The robber in the doorway ran away and as Tony Pena walked in front of the counter pretending to be complying, Margarita Pena blasted the other robber a second time. That's when he ran away, too, Tony Pena said.

Tony Pena watched the robbers get into a car with a waiting driver and he got the license plate number as they fled.

Hours later, cops stopped the suspects, charged them and found two guns in the getaway car, said police spokesman Lt. Edgar Martinez said.

"We encourage anyone who falls victim of this type of crime not take matters into their own hands," Police Director Sam Jefferson said. "In this case, the individuals were able to give us information that led to the arrest. The information is the vital component. They did what they did, but they were lucky."

One of the men charged, Johnson, had been free on $50,000 bail following his arrest in Jersey City in April on a robbery charge, officials said. Another suspect, McCovery, was out on $25,000 bail after his recent arrest on a charge of drug possession with intent to distribute near a school, officials said.