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Holdup No Joke As Robbers Shoot 2

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON

sthompson@tampatrib.com

Published: December 30, 2008

GULFPORT - Apparently some customers at Joy Foodsmart occasionally play an odd prank. They walk through the door and pretend they are robbing the business by exclaiming, "Give me the money."

That's what virtually everyone thought was occurring Dec. 22 when three men wearing bandannas walked into the store at 1005 49th St. S. about 8:35 p.m.

Tien Tran, a clerk who was behind the counter, said he thought the three were joking.
Thanh Hoang, the store's owner, was standing at the door and later told Tran that's what he was thinking, too.

Eric Hoang, 11, one of Hoang's sons, was behind the counter with his two younger brothers. He also thought the men were kidding.

"They come in. They yell, 'Give us the money.' We thought it was fake," he told The Tampa Tribune on Monday.

Tran, 25, said that before the men made their demands, they appeared to be laughing and joking with one another.

"We thought they were our regular customers playing a trick on us, like a joke," he said.

But after Thanh Hoang told the three to stop joking around, one of them shot him in the shoulder, Eric said.

Hoang, 43, pushed himself out the door, trying to summon help.

Tran, meanwhile, tried to shield Eric and the boy's brothers, ages 8 and 10.

"I told the boys to get back behind me," he said. "I told them to lay down."

Tran said he gave the men all the money in the register but they shot him anyway. A bullet hit him in the left side of the chest and came close to his spine, he said during a telephone interview Monday from his hospital bed.

"At first I thought the guy hit me hard. I couldn't breathe," Tran said.

He said he realized he had been shot when he could feel his body but couldn't move. He slumped to the floor, his head resting on a shelf.

Eric called 911; his 8-year-old brother pushed a panic button.
Thanh Hoang is recuperating at home, his son said.

Tran was in critical condition but now expects to be released in four to five days.

No arrests have been made.

"It was really scary, and I'll never forget it," Eric said.

He said he and his brothers are so close to Tran that they call him uncle, although he is not a relative.

Tran has taken them to Celebration Station and to St. Petersburg College, where he is studying to become an architect. The Hoang and Tran families met at the Vietnamese Mission Catholic Church in Largo, Tran said.

When Tran agreed to be interviewed by telephone, the boys were visiting him in his hospital room.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

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