No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Remember Ms. Margaret Johnson? The disabled lady who shot a mugger outside her apartment building in Harlem a couple of years ago? Ms. Johnson had a NYC premises permit that allowed her to have a gun in her apartment, but did not allow her to carry a loaded gun on the streets of New York. Jeff at Alphecca recently linked to a story that reported that Chicago police often "look the other way" when someone uses a handgun in self-defense, as the NYC police did in Ms. Johnson's case.

In Jeff's comments I wondered if Ms. Johnson's premises permit had been pulled after her incident. Another commenter, "Harvey," reported that Ms. Johnson is being sued by her attacker. I found the story:

'THUG' TAKES $HOT AT GUN GRANNY

This pistol-packing granny, who shot a man she accused of mugging her in her wheelchair, wishes she had finished the job -- because now, he's suing her for millions.

"I'm a peaceful person. I wish that I had killed him," said Margaret Johnson, 59, whose grandfather, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, once ruled Harlem's underworld and was immortalized in several hit movies.

"I didn't think you had to pay to get mugged in New York City," she added.

Johnson and her landlord, the Lenox Terrace apartment complex, are being sued for $5 million by Deron Johnson, 48, a man with a lengthy rap sheet.

Margaret Johnson, a retired city bus driver who has a dislocated hip and a ruptured disc, said that in September 2006, she was sitting in her motorized wheelchair at Lenox Avenue and 133rd Street when Johnson tried to snatch her purse and gold chain.

She pulled out her licensed .357 Magnum and fired a round into his left elbow. Cops grabbed him moments later.

At trial, Deron Johnson, who has nine previous arrests, denied being a mugger.

He said he kicked the woman's Shih Tzu, Malika, after it attacked him, and the gun-loving granny shot him.

He was acquitted.

Reading the rest of the story I still don't know if they pulled her premises permit. Oh, and she's not getting a lawyer to defend herself in the suit. Hopefully the landlord is. Deron Johnson's lawyer is quoted as asking, "What's grandma doing walking the streets with a loaded gun?" That's easy - defending herself from people like your client. It worked, too.