Fired for pulling gun on robbers, pharmacist sues

Video: Worker fired for pulling gun on robbers

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   >> it was all captured on surveillance video and john yang is in benton harbor , michigan, with details. good morning to you, john.

   >> reporter: good morning, savannah. this is the walgreen 's where it all happened where jeremy hovan did stop that attempted armed robbery . some hailed him as a hero but walgreen 's fired him. now he is making a federal case suing walgreen 's for wrongful termination. security cameras captured the brazen late night robbery attempt. a masked gunman leaps over the counter and points a gun at jeremy hovan in the blue shirt . in response he draws his own weapon.

   >> i feared for my life and in self-defense i fired my weapon as i continued to move from him.

   >> reporter: instead of being rewarded hovan was fired.

   >> no life was lost. no life was harmed and nothing was stolen. so in that context i think he was a hero.

   >> reporter: hovan was on the overnight shift at the walgreen 's last may when two armed men burst in. one holds a gun to the back of another worker and the second jumps the pharmacy counter trying three times to shoot hovan but the gun wouldn't fire.

   >> the gunman advanced on me rapidly. he hurdled over the counter and a single motion and pointed his weapon at me. the gunman repeatedly attempted to fire upon me.

   >> reporter: hovan says he tried to call 911 and can be seen holding a phone in his right hand and a gun in his left. he says he fired three times not wounding the would-be robbers but apparently scaring them away. another employee recovers one of the guns. hovan says he bought his gun after the store was robbed in 2007 . he has a concealed weapons permit but admits he didn't tell his bosses that he had the gun at work. asked to comment, walgreen 's said in a statement "store employees receive comprehensive training on how to react and respond to a potential robbery situation. law enforcement strongly advises against confrontation of crime suspects." hovan's lawyer says he never saw those policies and acted properly.

   >> he was exercising his reasonable right of self-defense in the face of a gunman who attempted to pull a trigger three times and shoot him presumably shoot him dead.

   >> reporter: those three -- those two gunmen are still at large and hovan's attorney says he continues to struggle with the emotional toll both of the attempted robbery and of losing his job. savannah?

   >> all right, john yang in benton harbor , michigan for us.

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