Clerk kills would-be robber who grabbed daughter

news.yahoo.com...;

I have to say good for this woman! I hate to think what would have happened to the child if she hadn't have shot the man. There are not a lot of details about this, but Im glad she and her children are safe. This is one more example that the 2nd amendment should be kept. Just think about how much money she saved the taxpayers on court costs, fees, incarceration, food, and shelter. It says in the article that the man was acting erratically, which could be a number of causes, but most likely, it was some drug addict that needed quick money (in my opinion, but since there are not a lot of details, I won't jump to that conclusion yet.) For those that have dealt with these kinds of people, you know that they are capable of a lot of things. Anyway, just want to say that Im glad the woman and her kids are ok.

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — Sheriff's officials in southwest Florida say a clerk at a 24-hour food store shot and killed a man who tried to rob her and take her 1-year-old daughter. Store owner Del Ackerman told the Naples Daily News (http://(link tracking not allowed)/rnKaJe ) his granddaughter shot the man after he stormed into the store Tuesday afternoon and demanded money and grabbed the stroller that held her baby. Authorities say 22-year-old Elizabeth Easterly was alone in the store with her 1- and 2-year-old daughters. Collier County Sheriff's spokesman Jamie Mosbach says the man was acting erratically before the incident. Mosbach says the clerk shot the man as he headed toward the door with the child. He was taken to a hospital where he died of his injuries. The sheriff's department is investigating.

You don't $%*# with a mother's kids. Or a father's for that matter.

Sad any time someone dies, as I'm sure this person wasn't 100% bad.. But you reap what you sow.

Very glad to hear the little girl is safe. I would have done the same.

I love happy endings but I hope the police don't wind up throwing that wonderful woman in jail and away from her children.

reply to post by Veritas1


I am glad the woman and her 2 daughters are safe.....to me it is a case of (justifiable homicide)...and the mother should not be brought up on charges.

This isn't good. She should have given a warning first. If she straight up shot him, that's messed up.

Imagine if her right to keep and bear arms had previously been revoked?

Yeah, imagine that, and then imagine it's YOU and YOUR KID in that situation.

I can't wait to see how the anti-gun and the violence-is-never-the-answer crowd try to spin this...THIS is why they are wrong, this and hundreds of thousands of similar would-be tragedies.

Originally posted by Veritas1
Just think about how much money she saved the taxpayers on court costs, fees, incarceration, food, and shelter.

It isn't about money, I obviously think what he did was wrong, but did he deserve to die?
I don't know.
I'm not sure what I would do in the situation. If I had a gun I would definitely shoot though.

Originally posted by Jepic
This isn't good. She should have given a warning first. If she straight up shot him, that's messed up.

edit on 19-10-2011 by Jepic because: (no reason given)

It isn't messed up, because she was protecting her child.
She probably didn't even know the shot would kill him.

Basic human instinct after all isnt it?,you try going into the woods and trying to grab a mother bear's cubs.Glad to see this story has a happy ending

Originally posted by Jepic
This isn't good. She should have given a warning first. If she straight up shot him, that's messed up.

edit on 19-10-2011 by Jepic because: (no reason given)

is that what you would have done? Do you have kids? If this happened to you, could you honestly say that you would have fired a warning shot if someone just robbed you and stole your child? Perhaps it would have been different had it been a simple robbery, but a lot of people are not going to take that chance when it comes to their children. With all the latest cases missing children, and being found dead, I think she made the right choice. Sometimes you just have to make that kind of choice in split second.

reply to post by Jepic



The guy grabbed her baby and headed out the door, man, are you freaking serious?? I do hope your comment was tongue-in-cheek.

Grab someones kid and take off, and you've immediately forfeited the right to walk upon this earth another moment, IMO.

Lets look at it from a neutral point of view....

Is there a camera recording of the man "trying" to rob her or "take" her daughters and even acting erracticly?

Is it possible she jumped the gun(lol) just because she "thought" the guy might be dangerous?

I love how people just assume such figures as mothers, elderly, priest must be right. Im not defending such crimes that are actually commited by certain individuals but when i put myself in the guy's shoes... lets say some guy is trying to chase me and kill me.. i run into the store and panic and started speaking incoherently to help me.. she might take that as "erratic behaviour" and kill me?

Originally posted by GmoS719

Originally posted by Veritas1
Just think about how much money she saved the taxpayers on court costs, fees, incarceration, food, and shelter.

It isn't about money, I obviously think what he did was wrong, but did he deserve to die?
I don't know.
I'm not sure what I would do in the situation. If I had a gun I would definitely shoot though.

you are right, its not about money. Its about saving your child. I would have done the same thing.

reply to post by Jepic


Normally I'm all about avoiding violence, but when some guy has your 12 month old in their arms and is running out the door you don't fire warning shots.

I am absolutely against the death penalty, but this is a much different situation. This is a young woman reacting on instinct on the fly. She did well for herself and her children.

Originally posted by GmoS719

Originally posted by Jepic
This isn't good. She should have given a warning first. If she straight up shot him, that's messed up.

edit on 19-10-2011 by Jepic because: (no reason given)

It isn't messed up, because she was protecting her child.
She probably didn't even know the shot would kill him.

She's also a woman. That probably WAS supposed to be the warning shot, and she probably didn't even know the shot would hit him.

Yeah, ok, forget I said that.

Originally posted by Praetorius

Originally posted by GmoS719

Originally posted by Jepic
This isn't good. She should have given a warning first. If she straight up shot him, that's messed up.

edit on 19-10-2011 by Jepic because: (no reason given)

It isn't messed up, because she was protecting her child.
She probably didn't even know the shot would kill him.

She's also a woman. That probably WAS supposed to be the warning shot, and she probably didn't even know the shot would hit him.

Yeah, ok, forget I said that.

Women do have a steady hand though. lol

reply to post by luciddream


I can see your point of view, and I respect that. But I have to ask have you ever worked at a convenience store late at night? I can tell you from experience that some "interesting" people tend to come in there, and most of them are what we call tweaking, or high on meth around here. There was an incident several years back where a clerk was missing from a store and finally found the following afternoon with 67 stab wounds, and yes the suspect was a known drug user. After that, though they implemented a new way of running the store, and did install cameras and worked 2 people at the same time. In some areas of town, they even shut down some of the stores at midnight. Like I said, there is probably more to come out of this, and I expect that there will be video footage of this incident. However, I think the woman did the right thing in defending her child...what would you do if someone took your child and headed out the door after robbing you? It will be interesting though, to see the rest of this story.

I found something that has a little bit more information about this....poststar.com...

A convenience store manager grabbed a gun from under the counter and shot a robber in the knee when the man scooped up the clerk's infant daughter, deputies and family members said Wednesday. The robber tried to get into the cash register Tuesday afternoon at Del's 24-Hour Food Store in Naples but he couldn't open it. He grabbed a stroller with Elizabeth Easterly's 1-year-old in it and headed for the door, according to a sheriff's report and family members.
Easterly shot the man and he died at a hospital. "She's pretty much in shock, but she saved the baby," said Easterly's grandmother, Nancy Ackerman. "He was taking the baby outside, and she went over the top of the counter. I don't know how she did that because it's real high." Easterly, 22, and her husband run the store for her grandfather, Del Ackerman. She was alone briefly during a shift change with her daughters, ages 1 and 2, when the man came in at about 3 p.m.
Ackerman, 75, said his granddaughter told him the man acted erratically and demanded money. As he fled the store, he tried to grab the baby, but couldn't get her loose from the stroller straps. When he began carrying it out, Easterly, as she had learned in a training course, shot the man once in his knee. The robber, identified Wednesday as 32-year-old Daniel Ramont Hernandez, was tackled outside by a man coming to work at the store and held down until deputies arrived.
Police said the shooting was under investigation. "I'm so thankful God saved my granddaughter and my grandbabies, because this guy was really vicious," Ackerman said. Easterly and her children were not hurt, but the young woman was shaken up, her grandfather said. Calls to her cellphone rang unanswered Wednesday. Ackerman said his family has run the store continuously for 47 years. It was closed while deputies processed the crime scene, but reopened at about 2 a.m. Wednesday. "I'm not going to let one person in the United States close my doors," he said.

Florida has a castle law, which removes the duty to retreat or fire a warning shot.
When a criminal puts his/herself in that situation, they assume all of the risk. The castle law also removes all liability from the shooter from criminal or civil prosecution. That is, if the shooting is legal. To be a legal and justifiable act of deadly force, you have to be able to articulate what a reasonable and prudent person would call a clear threat to life or serious injury. Justifiable deadly force is also authorized to stop a force able felony against oneself or a third person, or to protect a third person from death or serious bodily harm.

There is no need or duty to fire a warning shot, or to retreat from the threat. Now, put yourself in this womans shoes for a moment. Think of the fear she had from the robbery alone ( which the robbery alone is a force able felony compounded by the robber being armed), then add in the act of the robber picking up her toddler and implying that he would harm or take said toddler. I say this woman did the right thing. The more this happens, the more the criminal scum will think before they prey on honest people that are not afraid to work for a living.

reply to post by Jepic


If somebody was heading out the door with MY baby under their arm and I had a loaded gun handy, I would have shot him too, but would have made sure it was either a round in the butt or one in the head, depending on what target was bigger.

My only concern would be not hitting my baby with that bullet.

I would not care about the life of the robber nor would I worry about the posible legal consequences for split second. It would be aim and shoot.