The Armed Citizen® Feb. 5, 2024

Armed Citizen® Today

A 21-year-old suspect is currently facing attempted murder charges and another is being hunted by police after the two men attempted to rob a family in the parking lot of the Denver Museum of Science and Nature, only to be foiled by the family's handgun-equipped father.

According to police, the family pulled into the museum parking lot around 2:45 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2023. The father changed his shirt while his girlfriend got the couple's two children out of the car. Two men allegedly approached the victim as he was changing, each armed with handguns equipped with "extended magazines." The men grabbed the father, hit him in the back of the head with one of the guns and demanded the silver chain around his neck.

The father drew his concealed-carry gun and aimed it at the suspects, who opened fire on him. He returned fire as the two suspects ran. None of the family was hit during the exchange, and it appeared that the father had not hit either suspect with his fire. However, police were alerted to the arrival of a gunshot-wounded suspect who entered an area hospital about an hour after the shooting, and the man's clothing matched that seen on one of the suspects from surveillance footage of the parking lot.

At the time of reporting, the suspect was medically unresponsive and remained at the hospital under police custody. He currently faces four counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of felony menacing and one count of attempted aggravated robbery. (Denver7 News; Denver, Colo.; 12/31/23)

From the Armed Citizen® Archives – April 1976

After asking for cigarettes in a Minneapolis, Minn., grocery, a man opened his coat to reveal a knife and then demanded money from store clerk Margaret Clark. Instead, she pulled out a revolver and, in the scuffle that ensued, fired at and wounded the robber. He ran from the store but was arrested. (The Minneapolis Tribune; Minneapolis, Minn.)