FOX31 Denver

Customers shocked at Aurora store owner shot in robbery

Three days after the owner of the Village East Grocery in Aurora was shot during a robbery, the store has not been cleaned up.

AURORA, Colo. — The customers who frequent a neighborhood grocery store where the owner was shot during a robbery Friday are shocked by the violence.

“She’s so kind,” Victor Trahan said of the 59-year-old Indian woman who owns the store. “She greets you with a smile every day.”

The owner was working at the Village East Grocery on Peoria Street, just south of Mississippi Avenue, when an armed robber shot her, the Aurora Police Department said.

A barber from the Fade  N’ Shave Barber Shop next door shot the robber, who took off and called police because he was bleeding on a bench a few blocks away. He was then taken into custody.

“I kind of wanted to cry, you know,” Trahan said. “It was just … I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t feel good to know that someone that nice could be so mistreated.”

People who live and work nearby said the woman took over the store nearly three years ago. She had security bars installed to deter burglars.

As of Monday morning, the woman and the alleged robber were still in the hospital in stable condition, police said.

The barber who’s being called a good Samaritan is shaken up by the shooting and taking some time off work. He’s currently not facing any charges.

Police have not released the names of anyone involved in the incident.