www.omaha.com/index.php?u...id=2074693
This happened about 40 miles from me.
Published Thursday
December 1, 2005
Shooting leaves Benson pawnbrokers shaken
BY KEVIN COLE AND LYNN SAFRANEK
Suspect killed during robbery had troubled history
»
Police say customers were ordered to floor
Two young men burst through the door at Benson Jewelry & Loan just after 3:30 p.m. Tuesday hollering, "This is a stickup!"
An attorney for the store's co-owners, Norm Sargent and Ken Blankenship, on Wednesday recounted the incident, which left one of the men who entered the store at 6113 Maple St. dead and the other in extremely critical condition.
One of the two, later identified as Brandon Bowie, 17, jumped the counter, placed a .357 Magnum to Sargent's head and told him to get down on the floor, attorney James Martin Davis said.
The second man, identified as Kendall Tealer, 18, grabbed a pistol-grip pump shotgun from a rack behind the counter.
Blankenship, who was standing four feet away from Bowie and Sargent, reached for a .38 caliber five-shot revolver and fired three times at Bowie. Bowie collapsed.
Blankenship turned and fired two shots at Tealer, who he believed had a loaded weapon, Davis said.
Tealer started running for the door, and Blankenship fired two more shots from a .39 caliber Smith and Wesson.
Tealer made it out to the street, where he collapsed just east of the entrance. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Bowie remained at the Nebraska Medical Center Wednesday.
Two customers who were in the store at the time were not injured. One ran out the back door and the other hid behind the counter as Bowie and Tealer entered the store, Davis said.
Sargent, 63, and Blankenship, who turned 56 Tuesday, were also uninjured in the encounter.
"I didn't know who all was shot when the shooting was going on," said Sargent, who was on the ground as the shots were fired. "Afterward I looked at myself to see if I was bleeding."
Blankenship said he'll need some time to recover from the strain of the incident.
"I didn't sleep last night. I got back to the store at midnight," he said. "I got home at 1 o'clock. I didn't even try to lay down until 2."
Omaha police offered a similar account of the events Wednesday after interviewing witnesses and watching security tape footage.
This morning, the only hint of the robbery and shooting was a neon orange poster board in the window of Benson Jewelry & Loan reading: "Closed Wed. Nov. 29 (sic) & Till Further Thank You."
Merchandise inside the shop appeared perfectly in order. Windows reinforced by metal grates were intact and no blood was seen inside or outside the shop.
Yellow police tape that stretched around the entire block of the Benson shopping area Tuesday afternoon had been removed.
Greg Bourne, owner of a clock store three doors down from Benson Jewelry & Loan, said he was working at the time of the shooting but didn't hear any gunfire.
Police officers came into his store and questioned him, then recommended that he close for the day.
Bourne called Sargent and Blankenship after the shooting and left a message of support on their answering machine. They always have been good neighbors, he said, and the two businesses often did business with each other.
"I don't think having a pawnshop in the area is a bad thing. It's a fact of life," Bourne said.
Amy Ryan, owner of the Pizza Shoppe at 6056 Maple St., said it would help reduce crime in the area if the police assigned a full-time foot patrol officer to Benson.
Sounds like they brought the .357 and the other guy grabbed an empty shotgun off the rack....
