Guns and crime in Palm Beach

Jill Taylor:

Salvador Mijares planned to give a couple of bucks to a fellow Hispanic he thought was a panhandler outside a convenience store Monday night, but when the man pointed a gun at him, Mijares figured he was going to have to defend himself.

Tossing some change on the ground to distract the would-be robber, Mijares pulled out his own weapon, a.45-caliber handgun, and prepared to fire.

"When you have a gun pointed in your face, you have to defend yourself," Mijares said Tuesday. "I don't like trouble. I don't like to fight. But I was scared for my life."

Mijares, who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, said he pulled the trigger just as the robber hit his arm, causing two shots to fire in the air outside the store in Golden Gate, south of Stuart.

He was able to wrestle with the assailant and knock his weapon away. Witnesses called 911 while Mijares held the man by the shirt.

Martin County sheriff's deputies arrested Cleotilde Palacios, 28, of 3922 S.E. Camino St., on charges of robbing Mijares and another man who was approached a few minutes earlier and robbed of his bicycle, a watch and a knife, according to arrest records.

Palacios was held at the Martin County jail Tuesday in lieu of $40,000 bail.

Deputies retrieved the gun Palacios was carrying and found it was a BB pistol.

Mijares, who said he is familiar with guns and owns several, said he thought it looked like a 9mm handgun when it was pointed at his head in the dark.

"I could have killed a guy over a BB gun," Mijares said.

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