on April 15, 2014
Pizza delivery man is attacked, then shoots would-be robberon April 15, 2014 They messed with the wrong pizza guy. A gang of robbers attacked a pizza deliveryman just before 10:30 p.m. Monday as he brought food to a house in the 400 block of Cornwall Avenue, near Erie County Medical Center. In the front hallway of the house, one of the robbers, who wore a mask and had a brown hoodie pulled over his face, hit the deliveryman on the head with a hammer, according to police. The masked man also displayed what appeared to be a gun, police said. But then, the deliveryman told investigators, he pulled out his own handgun and fired a shot, striking the masked man. The rest of the gang scattered. DeJuan Coleman, 18, of Deerfield Avenue, was under police guard at ECMC in fair condition Tuesday, recuperating from gunshot wounds to the upper right arm and abdomen. He has been charged with first-degree robbery. The pizza deliveryman, whose name is being withheld by Buffalo police for safety reasons, was treated for head cuts and bruises as well as a left hand injury suffered in the robbery attempt. Police said his gun was properly registered. Police also did not reveal the name of the pizza shop the deliveryman works for. Monday’s incident was the second recent case of employees of city pizza shops rebuffing robbers. On the morning of Oct. 24, Terrance Price, 21, of Urban Street was captured by a group of La Nova Pizzeria employees shortly after he robbed two of their colleagues of the more than $5,700 that they were taking to the bank from the shop at West Ferry and Hampshire streets. Price, who was then on parole for a Pennsylvania crime, was chased through backyards until he fell on 18th Street, where the workers held him until police came. He pleaded guilty March 27 to first-degree robbery and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon for having fired shots at the La Nova workers who were pursuing him. Price faces a possible prison term of up to 25 years when he is sentenced on May 28 by State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia,. Price is believed to have had at least one accomplice because the money he took at gunpoint that morning in the La Nova parking lot was never recovered. An investigation is reportedly continuing. email: mgryta@buffnews.com |