A 73-year-old Missouri man shot and killed 2 men who attempted to rob him in south St. Louis on Tuesday.
Police say Jonathan Warren, 18, and Lonnie Middlebrook, 20, entered the man’s detached garage in the Bevo Mill neighborhood just before 4 p.m.
One of the robbers put a gun to the elderly man’s head and ordered him to back up. The victim, who kept a concealed weapon in his pocket, said he gunned down the 2 men as they tried to steal his pickup truck in the driveway.
Police found Warren and Middlebrook dead near the pickup truck. The gun used in the robbery was recovered near their bodies.
The man told police he feared for his safety when he shot the 2 robbers.
Residents say the man is a retired firefighter who tinkers on his truck and helps out his blind neighbor. He was a victim of a robbery in the past, they say.
“He’s been retired for 10 to 15 years and very active. I will probably double-check our cameras in the back and make sure they are working,” said Ron Pratt.
Middlebrook predicted his own death in a Facebook post dated August 4, 2015.
Under a photo of himself holding a fistful of cash, he wrote, “Get [money] boayyy or u gone die broke boayyy”.
