By: Robert Davis
A would-be victim thwarted a robbery attempt by three men in the parking lot of a Fayetteville, North Carolina hotel using a .22 caliber rifle, and defended two companions in the process.
Nineteen-year-old Kerron Mickens was looking for something in the trunk of a parked car driven by a companion when a Volkswagen Passat pulled into a parking space behind him.
Twenty-nine-year-old Antwan Kavan Lawrence and 24-year-old Malike Akeem Newsam, both armed with handguns, got out of the Passat and walked up to Mickens.
According to documents, Lawrence pointed his gun at Mickens and said, “You know what time it is, give it up,” The Fayetteville Observer reported.
Mickens told police he put his hands up and slowly backed away from the car. Newsam stood at the driver side door pointing his gun at the driver of the car and Mickens’ 17-year old brother, Joshua, who was a passenger.
Mickens backed up to the passenger side of the car, retrieved a .22 caliber rifle, and pointed it at Lawrence, who fired a shot into the car. Mickens fired back at Lawrence, striking him in the head. Mickens then retrieved Lawrence’s weapon.
The Fayetteville Observer reported the driver of the Passat, Christopher Shaun Grubbs, 29, drove away when he heard the gunfire. Newsam ran away through the parking lot, and Grubbs picked him up.
Grubbs took Newsam to the hospital and dropped him off. Both were later arrested and charged with attempted robbery, and are currently behind bars in a county jail. At last report, Lawrence was in serious condition at a hospital in Chapel Hill, and the Observer reported he would be served an arrest warrant when he was released from care.
Robert Davis is a journalist from Colorado. He covers defensive gun use and Second Amendment litigation for Gunpowder Magazine. Contact him at [email protected].
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