NYC bodega owner who shot armed robbers with gun he found is hit with weapons charges

A Bronx bodega worker who allegedly shot an armed robber with a gun he “found” in the store’s bathroom is facing criminal charges — but advocates are calling him a hero.Jhonny Gomez Cordero, 56, was manning the counter at his Melrose bodega on Nov.28 when a pair of masked and armed bandits allegedly stormed in to rob the place — only to have one of them get shot in the foot with a gun Cordero claims he stumbled into in the bathroom earlier.

Cops said the gun is illegal and hit Cordero with weapons charges, while supporters call it self-defense.“We’re going to fight those charges,” Fernando Mateo, a rep for United Bodegas of America, said at a press conference Wednesday.“And we’re going to make sure that Jhonny Gomez is a free man and he’s not charged with anything criminal.“Look, he’s got a business to run,” Mateo said.

“He’s got four kids to support.He’s got a wife.

He’s got a church.You know, this is a man of Christ.

A man of God, a man, a hard-working individual.” According to a criminal complaint, the security camera at Mi Gerizin Market captured the action.“Defendant pointed a firearm towards an individual known to the New York City Police Department and discharged such firearm,” the complaint said.“Deponent states that upon reviewing video surveillance, deponent observed one muzzle flash and heard what appeared to be the sound of a firearm.”The wounded man was hit in the leg and was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to the document.

Mateo conceded that Cordero had not applied for a pistol permit, but maintains that the small business owner simply came upon the weapon by pure chance.“When you go into your bodega and you allow everyone to use your bathroom, use your facility, you never know what they’re going to leave in the bathroom,” he said.

“And in this particular case someone dropped a gun in the bathroom.And it might have saved the lives of all the people who...