ORLANDO, Fla. — There was a gunfight during a robbery Tuesday at a high-end Dr. Phillips jewelry store and the store owner may have actually shot one of the robbers. The owner of Cisneros Jewelers (see map) told WFTV they shot at him, so he shot back.
IMAGES: Shots Fired, Cases Smashed At Store RAW INTERVIEW: Store Owner Talks To WFTV
The two guys ran out, covering their faces with their clothes, but they dropped something that could help catch them.
The masked gunmen missed, but Orange County deputies say the jewelry store owner might not have. A bandana, apparently blood-soaked, was left behind and the DNA could help identify at least one of the suspects.
"You had the presence of mind and the time to fire back?" WFTV reporter Kathi Belich asked store owner Carlos Cisneros.
"Absolutely, I had to defend myself," he said.
Cisneros was standing just a few feet from where the gunman's bullet drilled through a glass case. He fired back and shattered his own front window. As many as four shots could have been fired.
"Did they get anything?" Belich asked.
"No, they didn't get anything. They didn't have a chance, did they?! They broke one, the first case. They broke it. They didn't get anything," he said.
Investigators don't know how they broke it. They say the attempted robbery could be connected to Sunday's robbery at Mayor's Jewelry at Seminole Towne Center in Sanford (read about that robbery).
"The method of operation is real similar as far as smashing the glass case and those guys were armed also," Lt. Ron Chapman said.
Cisneros has a security camera, but there's no word on whether it captured the gunmen. No one inside the store was hurt, except possibly a suspect.
Cisneros says he'd been robbed before and this time he was prepared. Still, he was shaken.
"They don't care about people anymore," he said.
WFTV
