A New York bodega worker who shot an armed robber last month is now facing felony charges of illegally possessing the pistol he used, though he claims the gun didn’t belong to him.
Jhonny Gomez Cordero wounded one of two men (at least one of whom was already known to the NYPD) who came into his bodega on November 28 and demanded money at gunpoint. According to a police incident report, Cordero fired a single round, striking the would-be robber in the leg and sending him to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Though Cordero hasn’t been charged for firing the shot, he’s still facing the prospect of years in prison because the gun he used wasn’t licensed to him. Cordero claims he actually found the gun in the bodega’s bathroom a couple of hours earlier, according to United Bodegas of America spokesman Fernando Mateo.
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 are in the bodega.
“And it might have saved his life,” Mateo added. “Because if that gun wasn’t there he wouldn’t have been able to defend the people in the bodega.”
Be that as it may, under New York law simple possession of an unlicensed and loaded handgun is considered a violent felony offense punishable by a minimum of 3 1/2 years in prison. There’s no indication that Cordero ever attempted to inform police that he found a pistol in his store’s bathroom, but even if he had called the NYPD and reported the found firearm before he used it in self-defense a zealous prosecutor could still bring charges.
“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.”
And none of that matters in the eyes of the law in New York. Cordero can have a clean record, a doting family, and a strong faith, but so long as he doesn’t possess a Second Amendment permission slip from the NYPD Licensing Bureau he’s gonna face an uphill fight to clear his name.
New York’s laws aren’t stopping criminals from using guns to commit armed robberies, home invasions, and even targeted assassinations, but they’re much more effective at preventing folks like Cordero from lawfully using firearms to protect themselves. Applying for a premises permit is almost as expensive and time consuming as applying for a concealed carry license in New York City, and applicants for both licenses can face extensive and untenable delays before they hear back from licensing officials.
The bureaucracy and red tape not only impact most applicants, they undoubtedly lead to some folks deciding not to apply for a permit in the first place. The high cost of obtaining a pistol permit shuts out those who can’t afford to fork over the more than $400 it takes just to submit an application. They’d rather run the risk of violating New York’s gun laws than be defenseless and unable to defend themselves.
Cordero, of course, maintains that he happened upon the gun he used in self-defense just a few hours beforehand, so the high cost and needless delays won’t have an impact on his legal defense. Unless prosecutors decide to drop the charges of illegal gun possession or offer him a deal on reduced charges that will spare him prison time, Cordero’s best chance to stay a free man is likely to depend on convincing a jury of his peers to nullify the charges against him.
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