Mugger's Attack On Wheelchair Grandma Backfires
NEW YORK, NEW YORK--You can't tell a book by its cover.
And you can't tell what a grandma in a wheelchair might be packing.
Hopefully, that's what Deron Johnson learned last Friday.
Mr. Johnson, 45, allegedly came up behind Margaret Johnson, who is not related, and grabbed her around the neck in an apparent attempt to steal her necklace.
Deron didn't know that the 57-year-old woman is licensed to carry a .357 magnum pistol, or that she knows how to use it: She has at least a dozen trophies for marksmanship.
In fact, Margaret was on her way to target practice at the local shooting range when Mr. Johnson nabbed her.
She instinctively pulled her gun and shot her attacker in the arm, she said. When Deron ran away clutching his elbow, she called 9-1-1.
"I feel bad, but it was his choice," Margaret told the New York Daily News. "I think he's stupid. I think it's really wrong to take advantage of the disabled."
"There are people like him in the world who like to take advantage of people like me," she added. "Obviously, he didn't know me."
Police said Deron Johnson was arrested and charged with robbery. He was treated at Harlem Hospital for a single bullet wound in the elbow.
Copyright 2006 Inonit Publishing
Article reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service. Please do not reprint, republish or forward without permission.
