Less than two days after one robber was shot dead and another was seriously injured, Porfirio’s II Pizza in the Skyline Shopping Center in Middletown’s Levittown section is set to reopen Thursday.
On Wednesday, reporters, curious locals and customers milled about outside the shop. The employees and owners had a message: thanks to the police, thanks to the customer who shot the robbers and thanks to the community for their support.
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Gilmer Porfirio, who owns the Levittown shop with his brother, said he was thankful all his staff and customers were safe.
“He became part of the family now,” Porfirio said of the customer who shot the two brothers who were attempting to rob his shop shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday. “He’s a hero. He moved fast. Thanks to that guy.”
One of the pizza shop’s two employees who was in the store at the time of the robbery has a 2-month-old baby girl and was unhurt, Porfirio said.
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“If that guy would not have been here, it would be different right now,” Porfirio told reporters Wednesday.
Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub on Wednesday announced his office did not plan to file charges against the 35-year-old customer and stated the shooting was self-defense.
No Charges For Customer Who Shot Brothers During Botched Robbery
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“He used that gun only as he needed, to save his own life and that of the intended victim,” Weintraub said.
Porfirio said Porfirio’s II Pizza had just closed for the day and had their door open still when Shawn Rose, 24, and Justin Rose, 22, both wearing masks and gloves, came in to rob the store.
Prosecutors explained that surveillance video showed the customer, who did not wish to speak with reporters or be identified, only pulled his gun and fired off several rounds after the Rose brothers began making demands and pistol-whipped the man with their guns, which later turned out to be pellet guns.
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Shawn Rose was shot first in the torso and asked for help and water as he laid dying on the floor of the shop, Porfirio said.
A few feet away, Justin Rose fell to the ground by the door and was shortly after rushed by the Penndel-Middletown Emergency Squad to St. Mary Medical Center before being transported to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia in critical but grave condition.
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Porfirio said the neighborhood is nice and he’s never had any trouble at his store before.
By Thursday, Porfirio hopes to have everything at Porfirio’s II Pizza open and back to normal.
