Bronx Jewelry Store Owner Who Shot The Gangster Said He Was Protecting Himself

Bronx jewelry store owner who has turned the tables on armed men who tried to snatch - Explosives with a gun he had hidden in a safe - said today he did everything necessary "to protect me."

Antonio Spinelli, 49, said the wild scene opens just before two pm on Wednesday, when the owner of Spinelli & Sons is Arthur Avenue buzzed a man and a woman.

One of the alleged robbers pulled a gun and ordered Spinelli to withdraw money from the safe.

Spinelli grabbed his gun license and started to shoot at suspects.

The couple fled, but Spinelli continued to shoot them - hitting third suspect who was in the fleeing vehicle, a Cadillac Escalade.



The man was hit in the left leg and taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in stable condition.

"I'm OK, but I'm shaking," Spinelli told the Post today.

"Not ready for something like this," Spinelli said.

He said the woman put the gun to his head, "I went into survival mode."

"My birthday is three months and you wonder if you will do," he added.

Spinelli, a member of the NRA life, said: "I did what I did to protect myself."

"I do not want to hurt him," he added. "I wanted from him."