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Son Called Dad After Being Shot By Robber

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By NEIL JOHNSON

njohnson@tampatrib.com

Published: December 8, 2008

TAMPA - Seconds after Samuel McGinnis asked a clown-masked robber not to hurt anyone in a CVS drugstore, the gunman shot him a second time - point blank in the chest.

McGinnis, 26, the night supervisor, already had been shot in the leg. He didn't know that a second bullet had crashed through his body, piercing nearly every organ in his torso.

"He thought he'd been kicked," his father, Gene McGinnis, said Sunday.

Police are still searching for the man who held up the CVS at 1212 N. Dale Mabry Highway on Nov. 29.

As he was bleeding from two gunshot wounds, McGinnis called his father.

"He said, 'Pops, I've been shot. I just wanted to tell you I love you,'" Gene McGinnis said.

Then there was silence, leading Gene McGinnis to think the robbery was still going on.

"It was the scariest thing that any parent could hear in a child's voice. I heard the worst thing I've ever heard in my life," McGinnis said. But the worst was over, and his son is expected to make a full recovery after rehabilitation, though he may lose some feeling in his leg

He thinks someone in the store or on the street can help police find the gunman.

There is a reward of $10,000 - $5,000 from CVS and $5,000 from Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay - for information about the robber. Callers can remain anonymous.

Gene McGinnis is convinced that unless the gunman is caught he will shoot someone else.

"It's going to happen again," he said. "It's going to happen to somebody else's son."

Samuel McGinnis had just arrived for work after leaving his customer service job. He didn't realize the robbery was happening until a shot was fired into the ceiling. That was about 12:40 a.m. The man in the clown mask then demanded money.

Samuel McGinnis was climbing over a counter when he was shot the first time. The bullet hit his leg, shattering a bone and slicing through an artery.

On the floor and crawling to the registers, McGinnis was complying with the robber's orders to open the cash drawers. He had one out and was working on another when he was shot the second time, his father said.

The robber got away with about $80.

After calling his father, McGinnis used his belt as a tourniquet on his wounded leg. That probably saved his life, his father said.

When Gene McGinnis arrived at the hospital, it wasn't clear whether his son would live. He waited through five hours of surgery.

"It was one of the longest five hours of my life. I really didn't think he'd make it," Gene McGinnis said. "I paced a lot. I wished we'd gone fishing a little more."

Anyone with information can call the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office at (813) 274-8200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS.

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