What we know for sure is that a robber came into that store with a sledge hammer, intent on robbing the store (and perhaps its customers) and to do bodily harm. That’s why you take a weapon. No weapon was brought to the previous robbery, so apparently the robber had moved up to the more violent aspect of robbery. If mental issues were involved here, that’s all the more reason for the clerk to defend himself.

If the robber hadn’t chosen to commit the crime, he wouldn’t have subjected himself to the possibility of being killed. He put himself in that spot. He made the decision to break the law and to introduce a violent weapon into the equation. He’s dead because he brought it on himself. If I was the clerk, I would have done the same thing…except I wouldn’t have fired two warning shots. I would have hit him dead center with the very first bullet. If it were up to me, I would give him a medal.