Suspect fatally shot during Coney Island robbery in Detroit - Fox 2 News Headlines

By Taryn Asher
Fox 2 News Reporter

DETROIT (WJBK) --  A customer turns vigilante during an armed robbery at a Coney Island in Detroit.  One suspect is dead.  The other is on the run.

"He just (came) and put the gun in my face and he (shot) me.  He never asked me anything.  He never asked me for money," said Adi Avdolli. "He just pulled the trigger."

It happened in an instant.  The owner of Adi's Coney Island on Michigan Avenue on the city's southwest side says Wednesday night two masked men ran into his restaurant demanding money.  The suspect standing at the register shot him in the shoulder.  That's when a customer, who happened to be a CPL holder, pulled out his weapon and fired back.  At the same time, another suspect standing guard by the door fired off his shotgun grazing the armed customer in the shoulder.

"I wanted to save his life and my life and those other people that (were) in here, as well.  There (were) about six people in here and we all could've been dead," said the 51-year-old regular customer, who fired off a total of eight rounds killing one suspect.

The other masked man jumped into a waiting car and took off.

"I feel bad... for his family, but not for him because he robbed a lot of places," Avdolli said.

"A word of warning to people who do stuff like this, watch out, you never know who's in the background with a gun because they might be legal and able to protect themselves and others around you," the customer said.

A source tells me the same men who tried to rob the restaurant are suspected of robbing the AutoZone on Vernor at Livernois about an hour before.  In fact, the suspect who was killed during the robbery was found with an AutoZone bag filled with money.  Police are trying to determine if the suspects are responsible for any other robberies.

We're told police were also able to link those two scenes because of the vehicle used.  Witnesses described a dark-colored Trailblazer with tinted windows.

Will the customer that fatally shot the suspect face charges?  Detroit police say it appears the shooting was justified, but that the final determination will be made by the prosecutor's office.