BY JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
TAYLOR MILL -- An attorney for the youngest boy involved in last week's pawn shop shootout says investigators should look harder into the clerk's actions because his client was shot in the back.
"This was two young men sprinting for the door," said attorney Patrick Brown, who represents the 16-year-old charged with robbing the Quick Cash in Taylor Mill on Thursday. "This is America. We don't shoot people in the back."
Mr. Brown said his client's injuries clearly show that the bullets entered his arm and shoulder from the rear.
But Police Chief Steve Knauf disputes that, saying that when the shooting started, the 16-year-old was standing in the center of the store holding guns he'd taken from a glass case he smashed. Clerk George Waters has told police he was aiming at the 17-year-old, who was directly across the counter from the clerk when Mr. Waters faked a heart attack and fell behind the counter so he could grab his loaded .45-caliber handgun.
Minutes after Mr. Brown insisted Tuesday that he represents "a really good kid," a news release was faxed out by the Kenton County Police Department announcing that the 16-year-old and 17-year-old charged in the Quick Cash holdup face more robbery charges.
They are now accused in the March 21 armed robbery of the Community Liquor Store in Nicholson. A third juvenile charged in the Nicholson robbery was not involved in the one at Quick Cash.
The 16-year-old remained in the juvenile wing of the Kenton County Jail on Tuesday. He awaits a hearing on whether he will be tried as an adult. Police and prosecutors, however, say that's just a formality for both him and the 17-year-old because Kentucky law requires anyone 14 or older who commits a felony with a handgun to be tried as an adult. Both are charged with three counts of robbery, one each for the clerk and two customers who were in the store at the time.
The 17-year-old remained hospitalized at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Edgewood, where the teen-agers drove after the holdup. The alleged getaway driver, Travis Evans, 18, of Erlanger, also is charged with three counts of robbery. A third juvenile, whom police say waited with Mr. Evans in the car, has not been charged -- but Chief Knauf said that remains under investigation.
The 17-year-old was armed with a BB gun, but it was designed to look like a large-caliber semiautomatic pistol, police said. Mr. Brown said he would like to see the clerk charged, or at least see the evidence presented to a grand jury for possible indictment. Chief Knauf reiterated Tuesday that it does not appear that Mr. Waters will be charged because investigators think he acted in self-defense.
