A West Side grocer seriously wounded during a weekend holdup attempt carried a .38 caliber revolver to defend a business that earns $400 a month for him and his family, his children said Sunday.
Four men were charged Sunday with aggravated battery and attempted robbery in connection with the holdup of the R&S Grocery, 5449 W. Division St., police said.
The grocer, Rosendo Salazar, 49, was reported in critical condition Sunday in Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, with a gunshot wound to his neck, a hospital spokesman said.
Salazar, originally from Mexico, was wounded about 9:30 p.m. Saturday when three men entered his grocery and demanded money from the cash register, according to his children and a nephew who witnessed the attempted holdup.
As one man paid 25 cents for a pack of barbecued corn chips, and another man stood near him, a third man ”took out a gun and said `this is a stickup,` ” said Claudia Salazar, 14, one of the victim`s daughters. Claudia, her sister, a cousin and her father were behind the counter when the men came in, she said. Her older brother, Rosendo Jr., 22, also was in the store.
”My father then reached behind his back and took his gun out,”
Claudia said. ”The man then shot the gun towards my sister. My father moved my sister, and they shot him. I got down and pushed the emergency button so the police will come. Then I started screaming when I saw my father.”
Salazar apparently shot first, firing one shot that missed. The suspect returned fire with a .22 caliber revolver, said Sgt. Rocco Rinaldi of the Grand-Central Area violent crimes unit.
Salazar then staggered towards the front door after the men, said his nephew, Eduardo Robles, 13.
”He was losing a lot of blood,” Eduardo said. ”He didn`t get a chance to open the door. He just went down.” By this time the men had gotten away, he said.
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Salazar`s son, Rosendo Jr., was in a back room during the incident. ”I heard some shots and noise,” he said. ”I opened the door” and saw a man outside running east towards Long Avenue, he said.
”Then I went behind the counter and saw my father thrown on the floor, covered with blood,” he said. ”I grabbed the gun and went after them.”
He said he chased after the men through a park on Division Street.
”Midway through the park, I heard a car take off and slide on the ice. I saw the shadows of four men in the car. I shot, and they got away,” he said. The men drove off in a 1970 Oldsmobile driven by a fourth man, Rinaldi said. The four were captured by police several blocks later, he said.
Charged were Lloyd Johnson, 27, of 1044 N. Lawndale Ave.; Curtis Tate and Charles Washington, both 18 and both of 3245 W. Ohio St.; and Bennie Neal, 18, of 3630 W. Polk St., Rinaldi said. No money had been taken from the store.
The younger Salazar said he didn`t know how much money was in the cash register Saturday night. The store, which is open seven days a week, makes about $400 a month, he said.
He said there had been previous robberies at the store, which has been open since last March. But Saturday night`s robbery was the first involving a gun, he said. In the past, a box of diapers was stolen, about $30 in quarters were forcibly removed from a video game and a man pulled a knife on his father in an attempt to rob the register, he said.
The incidents weren`t reported to the police because Salazar ”thought it wasn`t worth it,” said Adela, 17, another of the victim`s seven children.
Despite the shooting, Rosendo Jr. said the store will reopen Monday.
”We`ll go back to the store and clean up and get ready to open up tomorrow. Are we scared about reopening the store?” he said, then shook his head ”no” in answer to the question. ”It`s the only income we can get.”