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Springfield, Missouri – from www.news-leader.com – The manager of an adult entertainment business believes he was kept from harm during a robbery, by a brave employee, who ended up shot and stabbed.
Terry Stone, who runs Paradise News and Arcade, just west of Springfield on Sunshine Street, said the employee stepped between him and the gunman early Saturday as Stone called 911.
The employee, who Stone declined to name, was shot in each leg and cut, Stone said, across his face and scalp; he also broke his shoulder fighting with the gunman.
“The nightmare is this guy’s got a wife and four children,” Stone said, “and he’s all but lost his livelihood at this point.”
The Greene County Sheriff’s Office says the employee, who was not named in a news release, was shot and stabbed by a thief trying to steal from the business.
Stone said the thief did not have a gun initially, when he was caught trying to steal a DVD at about 5:30 a.m. The employee and the thief scuffled, with the thief taking out a knife and cutting the employee in the face and stabbing him in the arm.
Still, the employee got the thief to the ground and restrained him, Stone said. The only other arcade employee in the store, Stone made the decision to allow the thief to get up, figuring he would leave. Stone said surveillance cameras had images of the thief and the injured arcade employee was able to get the man’s driver’s license from him.
The thief did not leave, though. He grabbed a 9mm handgun from his vehicle, began firing at the employee and Stone in the parking lot, at one point shouting, according to Stone, “You’re not so tough now, are you?”
After wounding the employee, the gunman also went back in the arcade, Stone said, and fired shots there. Stone said neither he nor the employee was armed.
Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Farrell, who works in criminal investigations division, said Monday he didn’t have a report on the crimes available but confirmed some details of Stone’s account.
The sheriff’s news release says 39-year-old Brian L. Jacobs, address not listed, is charged with one count of first-degree robbery, two counts of first-degree assault and three counts of armed criminal action. He was jailed in lieu of $200,000 bond.
Stone said he knows the arcade, which sells X-rated items, isn’t well-liked by some in the community. He said he saw at least one woman driving by the scene Saturday clapping at the police presence there.
That’s heartless, Stone said, saying the public should realize the employee had been in the military and was desperate for work.
“In this economy, he took the only job he could,” Stone said, adding, “We may not be the best place in town, but nothing we’re doing is wrong.”