Inside a cooler at an east Charlotte Pizza Hut, two would-be robbers were hitting and pistol-whipping a delivery driver. All the while, the driver said, he kept his right elbow pinned tightly against his body — holding a Glock 22 under his shirt and out of view.
He didn't want to use the gun unless he was forced to, he recalled Tuesday. But as he felt one of the men lifting his shirt, nearly exposing the gun, the deliveryman opened fire.
The two men killed — Gregory James Hardy and Dauntrae Wallace — were both 21-year-old convicted felons, one on probation and one awaiting trial on unrelated charges.
Police were searching Tuesday night for a third suspect who fled the attempted robbery and may have been wounded.
No charges have been filed against the deliveryman.
He asked that his name not be used out of fear for his and his family's safety. Officials confirmed that the 57-year-old had worked as a jail detention officer and a sheriff's deputy for about six years, until 2004.
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