Shoplifter Sues Store Owner Who Shot Him

Bryson Adrian Dewberry, a shoplifter who was shot in the face after stealing a bottle of vodka from a Colorado Springs liquor is suing the shop owner for at least $100,000 for pain and suffering. Bwahahahaha!

According to a lawsuit filed in early October, [Chang Ho Yi, the owner of Austin Bluffs Plaza Liquor, pictured, above] witnessed the theft on Oct. 25, 2010, and pursued Dewberry out of his store with a loaded .357 revolver, which fired as Dewberry was in the backseat of a getaway car. The bullet hit Dewberry in the torso before it passed through his jaw and exited through a cheek, the lawsuit said. The same projectile hit a 17-year-old passenger in the leg, Colorado Springs police said at the time. Dewberry’s lawsuit alleges that Yi behaved “negligently and recklessly” in brandishing a gun at a shoplifter who posed no physical threat. Colorado law permits residents to use deadly force in self-defense, but offers no such protections in defense of property. Yi and his company, Yi Enterprises Inc., are the sole defendants. Although Yi was initially arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office sent the case to a grand jury, which declined to charge Yi. His attorney, Alan C. Gasper, said afterward that he would have argued at trial that Yi had been hit on the head during the episode and was disoriented when the gun went off.

source: Gazette

Dewberry, who was 22 at the time of the shooting and has had repeated run-ins with the law, wasn’t charged, but according to his lawsuits, he's “disfigured” and suffered wounds to his lips and tongue that require ongoing speech therapy. That'll learn him.