To bad the deliveryman will lose his job but at least he's alive.

Armed pizza deliveryman shoots, wounds would-be robber

By Kevin McKenzie

A Papa John's Pizza delivery driver told police that he drew his own handgun and shot a gunman who tried to rob him Thursday night in southeast Memphis.

The 18-year-old he shot was being held in custody Friday at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis in fair condition.

Only eight months before and about three miles west, another Papa John's driver, 56-year-old Ron Brake, was fatally wounded during a robbery after delivering pizza at an apartment complex in Hickory Hill.

Another deliveryman, Stewart Roberts, 43, has worked as a driver in Memphis since 1986, spending the last 15 years as a Papa John's employee. He was not involved in the shooting, but said drivers are trained to be alert and avoid any situation with a hint of danger.

Roberts said that while drivers do face an occasional tense situation, most runs are routine trips to repeat customers.

"You always check your surroundings when you pull up, and you always verify numbers of the people you're delivering to by calling them back," Roberts said.

The latest example in Memphis of the potential robbery danger for pizza delivery drivers took place just after 11 p.m. Thursday at an apparently vacant zero-lot-line home at 6914 Snyder, near Raines and Riverdale, according to police.

The 31-year-old Papa John's driver was walking to the front door to deliver three pizzas when he noticed a man hiding behind a bush, the driver told police.

The driver said the man asked "What are you doing?"

The delivery driver replied, "I'm delivering these pizzas."

The driver told police that the man then confronted him with a .38-caliber pistol and said, "What you gonna do is drop off that money."

The pizza delivery driver told police he pulled out his own .38-caliber handgun and fired five shots at the would-be robber.

The wounded man, according to the driver, dropped his pistol and ran into another house across the street, entering through a back door.

The driver said the gunman dropped his weapon, so the driver picked it up and held it for police, who reported that the weapon had been stolen in 2006.

Officers found the injured man in a rear bedroom of his sister's house on Snyder, according to the police report.

The 18-year-old thought he had been shot three times, according to the report. He told police that he jumped over a fence next door to the house on Snyder where the pizza man was making his delivery.

He said he noticed "the pizza guy" standing at the door and was walking toward the street when the deliveryman started shooting at him.

His sister told police that her brother had asked her if she wanted some pizza because he was about to order some, according to the report.

The pizza deliveryman has a valid gun carry permit, said Dalya Qualls, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Safety in Nashville.

Papa John's is one of many national pizza chains that prohibits drivers from carrying weapons, including firearms, while delivering.

In 2007, an Indianapolis Pizza Hut fired a delivery driver for violating its policy against carrying weapons on the job. In that case, the man fatally shot an armed 20-year-old who he said was attempting to rob him.

Papa John's is among many delivery chains with policies aimed at protecting drivers from robbery and similar crimes, including limiting the amount of cash they can carry, restricting delivery from certain areas or addresses, and not requiring the use of "car-toppers," signs that identify a delivery vehicle.

In the Memphis case earlier this year involving the slaying of Papa John's driver Brake, his accused killer remains in court. Spencer Earnest, 17, is scheduled for another appearance in Criminal Court on Monday.

In a 2009 Memphis pizza deliveryman killing, 19-year-old Dean Heath was sentenced in September to life in prison after being found guilty of murdering Stephen Faulkner, 29, in East Memphis.