Grocery store shooter not charged, speaks about incident
By Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel
Feb. 3, 2012
Nazir Al-Mujaahid, from Milwaukee, the customer who shot a suspect during an armed robbery at an Aldi grocery store Monday night speaks to the media describing the ordeal, Friday.
The Aldi customer who shot an armed robber in the store Monday won't face any criminal charges, prosecutors confirmed Friday.
Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said the law allows use of reasonable force in threatening situations, regardless of whether the shooter has a concealed weapons permit.
"He disrupted an act that potentially exposed himself and others to great bodily harm," Chisholm said. Video footage from the store showed "he acted reasonably and in a controlled manner during the encounter," Chisholm said.
The customer, Nazir Al-Mujaahid of Milwaukee, held a news conference to discuss the incident. Al-Mujaahid, 35, called it nothing to brag about, but that "sometimes you have to do what you have to do."
Al-Mujaahid said he and his wife stopped at the store, at N. 76th St. and W. Villard Ave., for some last-minute dinner items. They'd never shopped at the store before, he said.
He said they had just walked in when he noticed the suspect approach the cashiers holding up a shotgun with the stock cut off and a bag, demanding money in a very agitated way. Fearing for the safety of himself, his wife and others in the store, he said, he unholstered his semi-automatic 9mm handgun, cocked it and kept it down at his side as he motioned another customer behind the robber to move away.
When the robber turned the shotgun toward him, Al-Mujaahid said, he fired six or seven shots from about 20 feet away. He said he hit the suspect in the leg and forehead. The robber then dropped the shotgun and bag, and fled the store. Police arrested a suspect and an accomplice later. They had not been formally charged as of Friday morning.
The whole process took less than 30 seconds, he estimated. He said he has not seen the store video, but that he was assured by detectives at the scene that he would likely not be charged.
He said he knew from his recent training that you need a clear head, breathe right and "commit to a decision."
Al-Mujaahid, an Internet marketer, said he's always been a gun rights supporter and previously exercised his right to openly carry a firearm. When Wisconsin adopted a concealed carry law last year, he applied for his permit in November. He said he obtained it Jan. 17 or 18.
He said he did not notice the sign at Aldi prohibiting weapons in the store, and that if he had, he would have gone elsewhere. He said since he began to carry a concealed gun, he has stopped from going into other businesses where he did see the sign.
Al-Mujaahid said he hopes the incident will deter other criminals from using guns in areas where law-abiding people may defend themselves.
At the news conference, Al-Mujaahid plugged his new website, ccwadvocates.com. It reads in part:
Learn from Real People like you and me, normal Ordinary Citizens that have awaken the spirit of personal responsibility and freedom that this country was founded upon!
Sign up to hear exclusively from the Man that stopped an Armed Robbery at a Milwaukee Aldi store. Many have called him a hero, we like to call him our brother!
The Michigan company whose firearm and CCW training course Al-Mujaahid took in November was already touting the case on its website Thursday night.