Police at the scene where a 17-year-old aspiring armed robber was struck down in his prime by a store clerk.

 

Rockford, IL (Guns Save Life) – The family of the armed robber killed last Friday in Rockford while robbing  jewelry store behind his home has spoken out to the media.

Brandon Pierce was shot dead by an employee, rumored to be the proprietor, of the Jewelry Concepts store around 5pm Friday, November 30th after walking into the store with a handgun and announcing a robbery.

The subsequent investigation found the violent offender to have been armed with a pellet gun that looked like a real pistol.

Brandon M. Pierce.

Mr. Pierce, the aspiring armed robber, quickly found out that bringing a pellet gun to a gunfight is not conducive to a positive outcome for a pellet-gun wielding armed robber facing a law-abiding citizen armed with a real gun and the knowledge, skill and attitudes necessary to use it to defend their lives from predatory criminal attack.

The family spoke out to the media, angry about the outcome of the armed robbery.

Brandon Pierce was staying with his father recently, living in an apartment within sight of the jewelry store he chose to rob.  The father, Michael Pierce was sentenced in 2008 to 9 years for Armed Robbery, was paroled this July.

“There’s Jewelry Concept’s back door right there,” says Pierce, his voice laden with anger and grief. “I have to look at it every single day.”

Brandon Pierce was kind-hearted and giving, his father said. The kind of kid everyone loved when they met him. But Pierce also said his son was troubled.

The father, Michael. Photo and text courtesy IDOC (including typos).
MARKS, SCARS, & TATTOOS
TATTOO, ARM, RIGHT – TOMBSTONE, S-WEB, HARLEY.(SLEEVE
TATTOO, ARM, LEFT UPPER – SPIDER WEB, REAPER, DRAGON…..
TATTOO, CHEST – WOLF (L LEG: SWASTICA)
TATTOO, WRIST, RIGHT – SKULLS, TOMBSTONE
TATTOO, ARM, LEFT UPPER – 1-17-04 / 12-26-04

He was a teen high school drop-out with a pregnant girlfriend. He  had a history of fighting at Harlem High School where he was a student two years ago. He  had served juvenile probation for possession of a stolen ATV.

Brandon had bounced from living in the Rockford area to living with his mother in Indiana and back to Rockford following his father’s July release from prison on an armed robbery charge. Brandon struggled to find work and was desperate for cash when he walked into the jewelry store about 5 p.m. Friday, Pierce said.

Although police have said Brandon was armed with a “handgun,” his father said it was actually a pellet gun. An undisclosed employee opened fire. Brandon was shot twice in the chest, once in the side and once in the arm, according to what a family member said they were told by authorities.

The father lamented the fact that the jewelry store didn’t just let his armed-robbing son steal some jewelry because, as dad said,

“We live in a society with laws, we have a police department to handle things,” Pierce said. “My son’s life to them was worth nothing more than a handful of jewelry when their lives weren’t even being threatened. It disgusts me.”

The bottom line is that the taxpayers of Illinois were saved from subsidizing another scumbag’s incarceration.

47 thoughts on “Family of teen armed robber killed in Rockford speaks out”
  1. Maybe if dady had taught his POS son to get an education and work for a living instead of stealing, Sonnyboy would be alive today.

    1. The EX-CON Father is welcomed by the public to join his son with such a lame attitude and excuse for a defense!!!

  2. Sad story all around, except the robber didn’t get the opportunity to use what was believed to be a real gun. A life time of bad choices it sounds like and the last one was fatal.

  3. Maybe if “daddy” hadn’t been serving time in prison for armed robbery, holding down a REAL JOB, and been there to teach his son right from wrong, this “troubled young man” wouldn’t be laying on a slab now.

    But he decided that it was easier to get a gun and rob other people of their hard earned income than to actually work for his living. So his son decided to follow in his dad’s footsteps and paid the ultimate price.

    I’m sorry to hear of a young life being snuffed out, but when you dance with the devil, you have to pay eventually….

  4. Gee, with a fine upstanding dad like he had, I’m surprised he wasn’t a corporate president. And the comment about the cops should have just let him rob the store, no harm done.
    This is a sick society folks, the inmates are taking over the asylum.
    Lock and load, aim and fire.

  5. Oh boy! Another innocent child shot by an enraged old white man-oh wait- the kid was white, too? Never mind.

  6. I’ve had guns pointed at me, never even occurred to me that they might not be real. Taking time to figure that out can get you dead really quick!
    Maybe if Brandon hadn’t wasted 12 years of free education he would have been able to qualify for a job. Even the worst schools in the USA will provide enough basic job skills if someone wants them.

    1. Not true. The worst schools provide the job skills to do what this kid did. Oh, I WAS wrong at the beginning.

  7. “We live in a society with laws, we have a police department to handle things,” Pierce said. “My son’s life to them was worth nothing more than a handful of jewelry when their lives weren’t even being threatened. It disgusts me.”

    First off, they had no idea that the gun was a pellet gun. I suppose they decided rather than face a situation where an armed robber went nuts and started shooting that they would defend their lives first, not some rocks in a jewelry case.

    Second, like others have said, maybe if you had been a better example as a father instead of serving time as an armed robber yourself, then this may not have happened. We’ll never know now. Too bad Brandon died following in Dad’s footsteps.

    1. Had the father been a better armed robber himself, he would have told his son that you never point a gun at anything you don’t want to kill. He did, and they did. They simply learned the lesson. He didn’t.

  8. This is where America is headed when basically no one cares about anyone else except themselves. Too bad the kid got “Wasted”. He would still be alive today if he had stayed with his mother instead of his loser dad.

    1. Maybe, maybe not.

      I think it’s sad when kids get shot. Sadder still when their parents don’t realize that the kid was asking for it.

      The shooter should sue the parents for the mental anguish of having the kid’s death on his hands.

  9. Welcome to the educated youth of our day. THIS is what our schools are turning out.. and from the record of the old man’s, they have been doing for some time.

  10. A robbery is a robbery. Although a pellet pistol is not a firearm, it can be very realistic looking. He got what he deserved.
    He was a sociopath for sure.

    1. Many yr ago I worked collection/repossession. Got into an altercation one night with a gentleman that was drunk and had ‘tapped’ my vehicle with his and claimed it was my fault. He wanted to be paid cash right then for the damage to his vehicle and pulled a pistol to back up his demand. Said pistol had a barrel big enough to pull an 18 wheeler into and turn around w/out having to back up. Turned out it was ‘only’ a .22; still, they can kill, too, but when you are looking at the wrong end of any gun, the barrel is enormous and at the time you will swear it is the biggest gun in existence.

  11. It’s not the “handful of jewelry” they were worried about, it was their lives! That is what was threatened by a deadly weapon! (or what appeared to be a deadly weapon)

  12. Arm ALL store clerks and if they have a chance to shoot first,,,,,,,,,Do this enough times the perps might, just might realize you can’t do that and live to tell about it.

  13. I ‘m sorry if someone is pointing a gun at me, I will not take the time to assume if it’s a real fire arm or a stinking pellet gun. I was raised to treat all guns (rifle, shotgun, pistol, muzzle-loader BB or pellet gun, paintball an air soft)as if they are a loaded live gun.

    I sorry for the family of the boy, but they should provided a better home environment for the kid.

  14. The punk had it coming!
    Gun control is being able to hit what you aim at.
    Buy more guns. Buy more ammo. Practice, practice, PRACTICE!
    That is ‘gun control’ and we need much more! The fear of death is great crime prevention.

  15. If I ever was in a position to attend a gunfight I would not spend much time trying to determine what sort of a gun the other guy/girl is holding or spend much time trying to determe what the other guy/girl is/was thinking. It only takes .7 seconds to kill with a hand iron. That includes time to draw, aim, cocking the weapon, and pulling the triger. Doesn’ leave much time to consider, reconsider (advice from a court reporter about what a Judge said a victim should do before engaging in self-defense)before taking defensive actions.

    Someone else made a remark that mre people should arm themselves and kill the armed aggressor. I second that…and would encourge anybody to bedcome expert in firing guns befor engaging someone in a gun fight. I would also encourage taking lessons and be able to rapidly draw and hit a target.

    Prime lesson: You don’t draw a gun if you don’t intend to kill and if you do draw, beat the .7 second it will take the other to kill you.

  16. Maybe dumb ass daddy will go try to rob again and we can get rid of his sorry ass too. That would be poetic justice for the son and too bad for a scum bag that couldn’t teach his kid how to behave in society, instead the kid emulated his father like most young boys do, and look at where it got him. Now we have a 19 year old kid dead.
    It just shows where our society is headed.

  17. What gets me is that the boy’s father basically asserted in a defacto manner that the jewelry store owners knew the boy only had a pellet gun.

    He stated that nobody would have gotten hurt and all his son wanted was the jewelry. He obviously ignores facts that:

    1. The purpose of using a fake gun that looks real is to intimidate your victims, betting that they will assume that it’s a real gun and may follow your commands under the presumed threat of death at the hands of the robber. Let’s face it, if the shopkeepers knew the robber’s gun was fake, then it wouldn’t have that intimidating factor that may force the victims to do what the robber tells them to do.

    2. Because of the presumed threat of death, it is reasonable to assume a victim may, in genuine fear of his life and of those whom he/she may be responsible for, assume the threat is real and take the opportunity to stop said threat when able to do so. Ergo, the victim is fully justified in making the shot once he/she knows that the opportunity is there. Unfortunate that the robber was a child but….

    3. …. the moment that boy took it upon himself to commit a violent crime, he became subject to the consequences of his actions. So….

    4. …. the boy’s father ought to man up and understand that crime is like a roll of dice and whatever is dealt, you take. If you roll a hand that kills you, well then life, or what’s left of it, is tough for you. And, since the father is, himself, a convict, he should have known that this would happen to his boy when his son decided to embark on a life of violent crime. Like father, like son.

  18. Nobody mentions that “dad” was released early from an armed robbery conviction. If he had served out his sentence then the kid would not have been living with him in the vicinity of the jewelry store he chose to rob while following in dad’s footsteps. Poor choices led to the kids death. Sad case. Time to drop it and move on. Will the next robber please step up?

  19. “We live in a society with laws, we have a police department to handle things”

    If a police officer would have been in the store unbeknownst to the robber, would the police officer have pulled his firearm and shot? Darned skippy he would.
    We live in a society with laws? Yup, had sonny boy was breaking them!

  20. As it should be. The corrupt government has built this system of chaos to their benefit. The pansy patrol on the left want to make excuses for any and ALL violent or depraved actions with no real consequences, his daddy was mean or he didn’t have a daddy or mommy. He got exactly what he deserved, dead. Get real harsh actions absolutely require harsh consequences.

  21. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
    Breathe.
    hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

  22. A victem doesn;t have time to ascertain whether or not a gun is real or fake. They react, in this case, as though it is real. End of case.

  23. Rockford, ILLINOIS, where the state has very strict gun control laws, had this happen. Wow, those gun laws just don’t seem to keep the guns from the crooks, do they? I am wondering if the “folks” in the Illinois police departments will go after the store clerk. Typical of the morons from the state in which I was born. Pray the clerk is able to quickly get over the trauma of the situation.

  24. The clerk did not know if he would be shot and killed, good to fire first, 2 bad it was a kid but that kid was headed to jail sooner or later and could have killed someone else who was not smart and let the robber do as they want. And how many of the thugs do the cops really catch, and if they do how many people get hurt until they catch them? Need to start doing what Sheriff Joe does tent city or like England did stick them on an Island and let them fend for themselves. We need to take control as Police and courts don’t, put them in jail and have to give them cable tv and workout gyms and the whole country club thing

  25. NEWS FLASH!!! Your son was committing a crime which was something you more than likely taught him to do. What you screwed up was not teaching him that if you are going to bring a gun with you while committing the crime, do not bring a pellet gun. Maybe youo should been a better father and taugh him by your own stupid choices that crime does not pay and that you could end up either in prison like you did and by the looks of things he did to at times or you could die. But there is way we can fix it so you will never have to worry about not teaching any more of your offsprings if you dont have any now and that is to casturate you the old fashion way. And if you have offsprings now take them away from you and give them all a lombotitise

  26. First off.
    Stop calling this young man a KID. He’s not a child or even an adolescent. He is an adult, a stupid adult, but an adult none the less. He saw what armed robbery got his dad and he still attempted to commit one himself. He is dead, a lifeless corpse with a wye cut in the center of his chest because his choice to take someone elses property overrode common sense and civility. As he father stated, We are a society of laws. Without punishments, laws mean nothing. I do not, can not and will not feel sorry for the loss of life. People may see it as cold, but ask yourself, was that the type of life you want living in YOUR neighborhood?

  27. what an idiot, HE is responsible for his sons death it is all on him which is why he is filled with grief and anger

  28. A pellet gun can kill you just as dead as a .22 or any other gun.

    Maybe if the father had taught his son right from wrong he’d still be alive today.

  29. Come on the kid just thought he was obama. I dont have any money so I’ll take yours. I’ve pulled A gun on just two people in my life (50 years) Pulled A double barrel 12 on A guy stealing gas from my truck (he changed his mind and hauld tail) The second wanted my wallet and had A gun. I dropped my wallet when he went for it he got A bullet. Turned out his gun was empty. Mine never is!!

  30. As others have said, Like father like son. I wonder if pop will continue in the family’s “chosen profession”, or get a real job. He could also make good use of his son’s death and give motivational speeches at high school’s about the follies of criminal life. Use his own life story also to encourage young people to finish school and get a good staying away from the criminal life.

  31. Obviously, Pierce was a graduate of the Trayvon Martin School for Criminals. Congratulations…….Brandon, you failed!

  32. Has this “DAd” ever thought how frightened the clerk felt when Dad’s loving son pointed a “gun” at him and wanted free jewelery. The clerk didn’t start his work day thinking, “I hope I get robbed today so I can test my gun”. But I know the “kid” woke up and planned this robbery,from carrying the gun, to selecting the store.
    Dad should look no farther than the mirror and apoligize for not being the father he should have been.

  33. David,,, I believe that would be a good thing for Dad to do. Speaking at schools and youth groups about finishing school and getting a positive career. He should also give the gross details of life in prison.

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