BY ANDY DAVIS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Going to the aid of his wife as she and an armed man struggled over her purse in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in west Little Rock on Monday night, a 63-year-old dentist pulled out a .357-caliber revolver and opened fire, striking the would-be robber in the buttocks, police said Tuesday.
Jonathan Terry, 24, of England fled but was found a short time later seeking treatment at the UAMS Medical Center. When he is released from the hospital, police said, they plan to charge him with aggravated robbery.
The dentist, John Antonetz of Little Rock, who works for the Central Arkansas Veterans Health Care System, had a permit to carry a concealed handgun, police said. Officers will forward information about the shooting to prosecutors for a decision on whether it was justified, police said.
About 62,000 people in Arkansas, including about 4,100 in Little Rock, have concealed handgun permits, according to the Arkansas State Police. The number of applications for such permits has spiked in recent months, a development that handgun instructors attributed to fear that the federal government will curtail gun rights under President Barack Obama and to the publicity surrounding the murder of KATV news anchor Anne Pressly.
Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Cassandra Davis said the department generally discourages people from using force to fend off robbers.
“You are not familiar with this person. They may have an accomplice. They may be more skilled than you are,” Davis said. “In this incident, Antonetz did not get injured, but he could have.”
Instead, Davis said, she would recommend that people cooperate with the robber and “be a good witness,” paying attention to what the robber looks like, remembering what he says and making note of the weapon he uses and the vehicle he drives.
“In most instances, if an individual just gives them what they want without any resistance, in most cases, the suspect just flees with the property,” Davis said.
But Jack Acre, who owns a Little Rock security company and teaches a course on handgun safety, said that sometimes using force is the safest option. It’s up to the gun owner to judge the circumstances, he said.Assistant Chief of Police - Executive Bureau - Chief Eric Higgins (501) 371-4621
Assistant Chief of Police - Uniformed Services Bureau - Chief Carlos Corbin (501) 371-4621
Assistant Chief of Police - Special Services Bureau - Chief David Rowan (501) 371-4621
“Some people want to just give them their money and hope that will end it, and maybe it would end it, but you never know in that situation whether it would or not,” Acre said.
According to police, Antonetz and his wife, Lydia Pace-Antonetz, were loading groceries into their sport utility vehicle at the store at 19301 Cantrell Road just before 11:30 p.m. when a man wearing a wig and a cap approached the vehicle, pulled out a silver revolver and announced a robbery.
The couple ran from the man, but he pointed the gun at Pace-Antonetz and grabbed her purse. As they struggled, the man struck Pace-Antonetz and repeatedly pointed a gun at her and her husband, police said.
A police report said Antonetz “went to the passenger side of the vehicle and retrieved his revolver from his concealed holster in his pants.”
Antonetz then went to the back of the vehicle and began firing. The would-be robber fell to the ground, then got into a white Dodge Intrepid that had pulled into the parking lot. Antonetz had fired at least four shots, including one just before the assailant sped away in the car, police said.
A short time later, UAMS Medical Center notified police that a gunshot victim had arrived at the emergency room. At the hospital, police found Terry, as well as Tequila Rice, 22, of Lonoke and Sherry Battles, 24, of North Little Rock, who police say had taken Terry to the hospital. Rice and Battles were arrested on aggravated robbery charges and were taken to the Pulaski County jail. Their bail had not been set Tuesday.
Dina Tyler, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Correction, said Terry was on parole for a burglary conviction. Further details of the case weren’t immediately available.
Pace-Antonetz, who answered the door at the couple’s brick, two-story home in Little Rock’s Pleasant Valley neighborhood, declined a request for an interview Tuesday. A woman who lives across the street described them as “a good Catholic family” who attends nearby Christ the King Church on Rodney Parham Road. The couple has two grown sons, neighbors said.
Under Arkansas Code Annotated 5-2-607, deadly force can be used in self-defense if a person reasonably believes that an attacker is about to commit a felony “involving force or violence” or if the attacker is “using or about to use unlawful deadly physical force.” The same law also states that deadly force cannot be used in self-defense in situations where an individual can retreat “with complete safety.”
To obtain a concealed-handgun permit, an applicant must pass a background check, complete a course on handgun safety and demonstrate proficiency with a firearm.
Already this month, the Arkansas State Police has received more than 3,000 applications for permits, compared with 1,429 in March of last year, said Bill Sadler, a spokesman for the agency. In January and February, the agency received 5,513 applications, almost double the number from the same period the year before.
In response to the increased interest, the Shooter’s Gallery in North Little Rock last fall began holding handgun safety courses every week, instead of every other week. Terry Skinner, the firing range’s manager, said some applicants are concerned about Obama, while others were shaken by the death of Pressly, who was beaten and raped at her home in Little Rock’s Heights neighborhood in October.
Skinner said he teaches his students that, if they’re being robbed at gunpoint, they use their gun to defend themselves if they have the chance.
“If you’ve got the opportunity to pull the gun out, you take the opportunity to shoot at the same time,” Skinner said. “The gun does you no good if you don’t use it.”
