The owner of Furnari Jewelers on Memorial Drive said he shot a robber when he launched himself over the counter and attempted to attack him.
Anthony J. Furnari of Furnari Jewelers on Memorial Drive in Chicopee talks about the previous days robbery at his store.
Updates a story posted Tuesday at 2:04 p.m.
CHICOPEE — One man accused of robbing Furnari Jewelers is under arrest and suffering from at least one bullet wound after being shot by the owner of the long-established business.
The man, whose name was not released, was shot when owner Anthony J. Furnari pulled a gun from the top of his desk and fired multiple times as the accused jumped over the counter. Another suspect remains at large, acting Chicopee Police Chief Thomas Charette said.
The robbery started at about 4 p.m. Monday at the store on 1189 Memorial Drive. Employee Cindy Schachter said the door was propped open since the weather was warm, and she saw two men walking through the entrance.
“When I see two guys come in the store, it always makes me nervous. ...They were kind of scary,” she said.
Schachter said she gave her boss a quiet warning, and a second later, the two pulled clothing over their face and ran across the store floor.
At the time Furnari was sitting in his desk in the corner, facing the showroom. Next to him was the .38-caliber handgun, which he has kept on his desk since he was robbed about two years ago.
One of the two men jumped over the chest-high counter heading for Furnari.
“As he was launching toward me, I shot him, boom, boom, boom. I was thinking I was a dead man,” Furnari said.
Even though the man was shot at least once, he kept coming. He grabbed the barrel of the gun and the two grappled for the gun, Furnari said.
“He was on me, I can’t believe he is alive, and the other joined in,” he said. “I was fighting with two guys, and I won.”
At that point, the two grabbed a velvet covered board full of gold chains and ran out of the store. Furnari is unsure of the value of the jewelry taken.
Furnari did not get out of the fight unscathed. His nose was broken, he suffered a concussion, he has stitches closing a large cut in his index finger where he was holding the gun and more stitches over one eye, which is also blackened. The most painful injury is a fractured rib.
He was brought to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield by ambulance after police arrived. Furnari said he was treated and went home at about 2 a.m.
When the fight started, Schachter, of Easthampton, was knocked onto the floor. She said she feels lucky to have only suffered a bruise to one of her arms when she was kicked by one of the two men.
But they got off better than one of their assailants. A man checked into Baystate Medical Center some time Monday night seeking treatment for the bullet wounds, Charette said.
He remains in the hospital with non life-threatening injuries and was served an arrest warrant Tuesday charging him with armed robbery while masked and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Police are pursuing a number of leads and hope to make quick progress in finding the second suspect in the case, Charette said.
Officers are releasing limited information in the case because it is still under investigation and declined to release the age or address of the man arrested. Charette did confirm at least one of the suspects was armed, and they were covering their faces with some type of clothing.
Furnari said he thinks he fired at least three rounds, one of which hit the front window. Charette declined to say how many times the assailant was hit, but said it was not three times.
Furnari said everything happened so fast that he really could not describe the men. He said he knows they were young because they were so strong.
“I was lucky. I don’t know why they didn’t shoot me,” he said.
One dropped a gun while they were fleeing and left it on the floor of the store, leaving no doubt that they were armed, Furnari said.
Furnari, of Suffield, has been in the jewelry business for 35 years and owns several stores in the area, including one his son runs in the Enfield Mall. He opened the store on Memorial Drive at least a dozen years ago.
He admits he hates guns. He only got a firearms license after an attempted robbery about two years ago. That time he was alone in the store when someone came in and said it was a robbery. That man did not take anything, and Furnari was able to chase him away by pretending someone else was in the back room calling police.
Police confirmed the businessman is legally licensed to own a firearm. Although the investigation is ongoing, they do not expect to charge the owner.
Just a day after the robbery, Furnari and Schachter reopened the store despite the bullet hole in the front window. Most of the display cases were empty, and most of the people who stopped in were friends and family checking to see if they were OK. One customer did come in looking for a gift but said he would stop by again tomorrow when things calmed down.
He said people have been very kind. Several neighbors who found gold chains the robbers dropped while fleeing the store stopped in to return them. The chains are worth several hundred dollars, and he was shocked how honest people have been.
“There is no way this is going to stop me,” Furnari said.