Bad day at Black Rock for robbers

Owner of Nick's Grocery store, Osama "Sammy" Ghalayini poses inside the shop in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday February 3, 2013. Two masked gumen tried to rob him yesterday evening but he used his gun to defend himself. A gun battle ensued leaving many spots in the store riddled with bullet holes. You can see damage on the security screen at the left where a bullet hit the edge of it. less Owner of Nick's Grocery store, Osama "Sammy" Ghalayini poses inside the shop in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday February 3, 2013. Two masked gumen tried to rob him yesterday evening but he used his gun to defend ... more Photo: Christian Abraham Photo: Christian Abraham Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Bad day at Black Rock for robbers 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT -- Osama "Sammy" Ghalayini was backed against the wall of his tiny Black Rock store by two masked men menacing him with a small black handgun, his life beginning to flash before his eyes -- and then he remembered his 9mm.

"I started to move for my safety and one of them fired a shot," he said, pointing to a hole in the back of the cash register. "So I pulled out my 9mm Taurus with the 17-bullet magazine and started firing until it jammed. And they ran out like cockroaches."

With his round body and moon-shaped face topped with a knit Yankees' hat, Ghalayini admits he doesn't fit the profile of an expert marksman -- and he's not. His bullets apparently went everywhere in the narrow store and there is no evidence he hit his intended targets -- unless he was aiming at the Twinkies and Oreos on the store's shelves.

Ghalayini said he bought the gun a year and a half ago to protect himself and his sister, Nada, who also works in the store. He is convinced that the gun, if it didn't save his life, certainly ensured the two men would never try to rob him again. "They got scared to hell," he said.

Nada Ghalayini is convinced that her brother would be dead if he hadn't fired at two masked men Tuesday night.

"If he (Osama Ghalayini) didn't have a gun, he would be under ground right now," she said.

Police said the holdup is under investigation and declined comment on the appropriateness of the store owner, who had the gun legally, firing at robbers.

"I'm the good Osama," Ghalayini said about his name, and his role in the shoot-out.

The robbery attempt was the big topic of conversation among Black Rock residents, many who came into the landmark store to check on the owner's situation. Between dispensing lottery tickets and cups of coffee, Nada Ghalayini assured her loyal clientele both she and her brother were fine.

"Life goes on," she told them. "I'm not going to let these bastards stop me from doing what I have been doing for years, a lot of people depend on me."

The official police report shows that shortly after 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, two masked men entered the store at the corner of Fairfield Avenue and Fox Street and demanded money, said Police Department spokesman Bill Kaempffer. The men then fled without getting any money.

Kaempffer said it's not clear at this time whether Ghalayini shot one of the masked men.

There were bullet holes all over the store. One bullet pierced a small flat screen television attached to the lottery machine, went through the television screen hooked to the store's surveillance cameras and ended up in the side of the large standing cooler.

Behind the counter in the narrow store is a sign reading: "Welcome to Nick's Grocery your neighborhood stop."

Many of the people who came in Wednesday morning said they had been coming there for years. Nada Ghalayini ends every sale telling the customer, "Be safe please."

"I try to treat everyone who comes in here like family, because I see them more than my own family," she said.

"I've been here every morning for the past 20 years," said Mary Kocsis, who lives around the corner. "These are good, hard-working people and it is terrible this should happen to them, but this just shows it happens everywhere in the city. No one is safe."

Another woman, who declined to give her name, said she often brings her children to the store.

"There are a lot of nice people in this neighborhood, and everybody knows everyone," she said. "But the people that did this are from another neighborhood. They robbed the Subway up the street two weeks ago."

dtepfer@ctpost.com; 203-330-6308; http://twitter.com/dantepfer