Police say robber was shot by Hilltop man shielding his 2-month-old son

A man was shielding his infant son when he shot another man who had just robbed him Monday night on the Hilltop, police say.

Kelby Smith, 34, had just gotten out of his car in his brother’s driveway on Crescent Drive about 8:45 p.m. when a man with a pistol approached him and demanded money, police said.

Smith was carrying his 2-month-old son in a car seat at the time. He knelt down in front of his son to shield him as the robber held the gun to Smith’s head, police said.

While Smith was handing over a small amount of cash, he pulled his gun out of a holster, said detective Brian Boesch of the Columbus police robbery squad. Smith is a concealed-carry permit holder, Boesch said.

The robber fled, police said, but then pointed his gun back at Smith as he ran.

“When I pulled my pistol he took off running and I shot and it hit him,” Smith later told a 911 dispatcher.

The dispatcher asked Smith how he knew the man had been shot.

“Cause when I shot he started crying and he fell to the ground,” Smith told the dispatcher.

A short time later, a man matching the description of the robber came into Mount Carmel West hospital with a gunshot wound. He was taken to surgery and is under police guard tonight.

Boesch said they are not releasing the man’s name because he has not been charged in the case. He said the man was stable and awake.

“We are waiting for lab tests to come back to see whether we can put him at the scene,” Boesch said.

Reached at his Far West Side home today, Smith declined to talk about the incident, saying he was still traumatized by it.

Heather Waters, who heard the single gunshot from her house across the street, said the neighborhood is fairly quiet and that robberies aren’t common.

“There’s no shootings,” she said. “We never have anything like this.”

amanning@dispatch.com

@allymanning

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/01/08/robber-shot.html