Bank robber hospitalized after being shot three times by customer

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A thief walked into a Warren bank expecting to rob it at about 4 p.m. Monday.

But a concealed pistol license holder shot the bank robber three times once in the leg and once in each arm. He is recovering in serious condition at St. John Providence Hospital.

A passer-by recorded a phone video of the bad guy's very bad day at Citizen's Bank at Van Dyke north of Nine Mile in Warren.

"It's not every day you see a bad guy get shot and get taken down," said witness Gary Guyette.

The 43-year-old suspect turned his gun on the wrong customer, a 63-year-old CPL holder who was packing heat, himself.

"The 63-year-old responded in kind by defending himself," said Mayor Jim Fouts. "It's his Second Amendment right."

"The one guy's arm was full of blood," said Guyette.

Guyette pulled up in front of the bank to see police apprehending a wounded and whimpering robber

"They cuffed him and then they surrounded him," he said. "He was moaning and kind of screaming and paramedics pulled up and started working on him."

FOX 2: "Is it surprising at all to hear about this?"

"To be honest with you, no," said Stefan Bahry.

Bahry is a firearm instructor at the Action Impact Gun Range.

He says more and more people are obtaining CPLs and the self-defense shooting at the Citizens Bank is proof of what can happen when the good guys who are law abiding citizens, are armed.

"For those people that are anti-gun and anti-us civilians carrying firearms, I say what if that was you inside of that bank," Bahry said. "What if that person turned his gun on everybody inside the bank and just started shooting people for the heck of it. Maybe there is that one person that's going to defend your life and that's going to defend my life."

Warren Mayor Jim Fouts was hesitant to offer praise to the gun carrying good guy in this story.

"I don't like whenever I hear there's guns used in any kind of situation," Fouts said. "But this had a relatively good outcome."

Others however, poured it on.

"I'm glad to see that more people are carrying guns," said Guyette. "And the bad guys think twice before they do something bad - and take care of business."

It is unlikely the 63-year-old will face charges for the shooting.