-- HARLEM -- The place may have looked like an easy mark, a high-cash business with an owner in his 70s, known as a gentle, soft-spoken man.And talk about transformative justice...
Mr. Augusto, whom neighborhood friends call Gus, rose from a chair 20 to 30 feet away and took out a loaded Winchester 12-gauge pump-action shotgun with a pistol-grip handle. The police said he bought it after a robbery 30 years ago.
The first shot took down the gunman at the front. He died almost immediately, according to the police, who said he was 29 and had been arrested for gun possession in Queens last year and was the nephew of a police officer.**********
Mr. Augusto’s other two blasts hit all three accomplices, who stumbled out the door, bleeding.
The names of the men who were shot — two dead and two wounded — were not immediately released by the authorities.
UPDATE: Taking care of his employees
After the employee was struck, Mr. Augusto picked up his shotgun and fired it three times.**********
The employee, who goes by J.B. said, “Better him with a tag on his toe than my mother planning a funeral for me.”
LAST WORD: Police Commissioner weighs in...
"He certainly had a right under the law to defend himself, defend his co-workers. It looks like his co-worker could have been seriously injured or perhaps killed."*