Robber fatally shot by Miami jeweler

BOCA RATON, FLORIDA— "After Leon Rozio was robbed, he vowed never to let it happen again.

Three or four years ago, the 64-year-old owner of Miami-based H&L Wholesale Jewelry Inc. lost about $300,000 in gold and jewelry in a Miami Lakes holdup, said his half-brother, Fernando Mirabal.

Soon afterward, Rozio, a prominent member of Miami's Cuban-American community, started bringing a gun on his sales runs, which took him and his pricey jewelry to shops across South Florida.

About 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, not long after Rozio parked his red Ford Explorer outside St. Moritz Jewelers at 21310 St. Andrews Blvd., four men screamed up behind him in a silver car, boxing him in. They surrounded the Explorer, smashing windows and snatching a duffel bag with jewelry inside, witnesses said.

Rozio retrieved his pistol and started firing. He emptied three or four rounds into the robbers' Silver Saturn Vue, which was outfitted with a Kansas license plate obscuring a Florida tag, aiming for the tires and the driver's side window.

One of the robbers was struck and killed.

"I haven't done anything like this in my life," said Rozio, whose voice was still unsteady hours after he'd killed the man. "I feel very bad. I want to pray. In all my life, I never thought I would hurt anybody."

Rozio, who's been selling jewelry for 30 years, said the robbers took everything he owned, totaling more than $100,000 in jewelry. He didn't know whether his business would survive.

Hours after the shooting, he couldn't get the young robber out of his head. "It's like you blink and everything happens, and you hope that what you're going through is not true. You hope that soon you're going to wake up. Nothing prepares you for this."

Witnesses said the scene in the suburban shopping center was like something out of a western movie.

"He opened up like I have never seen," said Greg Sanderson, manager of a nearby Omaha Steaks shop, who watched the shooting through the store's plate-glass windows. "I couldn't believe it. It sounded like the Wild West out there."

(Nice that this spineless creature would equate a man fighting for his property with some fictional theatrical presentation, isn't it?)

"As Rozio fired, the driver, a young man dressed head to foot in black and wearing a black hood, slammed the car into reverse as the other three men scattered, speeding northbound in the parking lot before lurching to a stop beside a nearby Wendy's restaurant.

One of the men staggered from the car and ran west through the parking lot toward St. Andrews Boulevard, a witness said.

Paramedics found the wounded robber bleeding in the car, said Boca Raton Fire Rescue spokesman Frank Correggio. The man was taken to Delray Medical Center, where he died soon afterward, officials said."

(Score one for the good guys. One less useless mouth to feed in prison.)

"The other three men escaped in a silver van, triggering a manhunt. It wasn't clear whether any of them were wounded.

As the afternoon wore on, investigators and crime scene technicians pored over the parking lot. The silver Saturn - its back left tire deflated, its driver door ajar, a smear of blood on the left rear quarter panel - sat in the parking lot, the dash bell still chiming.

Rozio's attorney, Bill Matthewman, said his client will not face charges."

Damn straight he won't. This isn't NY, Jersey, Massachusetts or some other dirty place. Stealing from law abiding citizens SHOULD be a life and death situation, and the only pity is the fact that most like-minded crooks can't read or they'd be getting the message before it was too late.