Prosecutor: No charges will be filed against a storekeeper who fatally shot a man who entered the store and pointed what turned out to be a toy gun, the Hamilton County prosecutor said Thursday.
The statement that storekeeper Abdrab Ashishi gave police was consistent with what investigators found at the scene and the coroner's autopsy report on the victim, Prosecutor Michael Allen said. Allen said the May 27 shooting of David Billups, 40, of suburban Forest Park, was in self-defense.
"Police do not believe a crime was committed, nor do I," he said.
Billups had entered the convenience store wearing a mask and black leather gloves and carrying what appeared to be a real handgun, Allen said.
Ashishi, of suburban West Chester, was alone in the rear of the store at the time, he told police. Ashishi said he saw Billups behind the counter and Billups pointed the toy gun at him.
Ashishi told police that he got his own handgun and shot Billups five times.
"A guy comes in dressed head to toe in black and carrying what appears to be a real gun, I think you can assume he's not there collecting for the Red Cross," Allen said.
Billups had been previously convicted of aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, and kidnapping, the prosecutor said. Until a month before the May 27 confrontation, Billups had been staying at a halfway house as a condition of his early release from a 50-year prison term at the state's Madison Correctional Institution for crimes committed in Franklin County, Allen said.
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