At about 6:45 in the evening on Saturday, two armed men walked into Christopher Diamonds of Chandler, Arizona, and attempted to rob the store.  This is yet another in a growing trend of diamond jewelry thefts all over the country.  The men, however, were met with quite a surprise when they found that the store owner had a gun of his own, and was not afraid to use it. 

As one of the assailants chased the owner's son, Chris, to the back of the store, the other raised his gun to the face of Rusty Uptain, the store owner.  Before the robber was able to shoot, Rusty tackled him.

During the scuffle, Rusty was able to reach his own gun, and shots were exchanged.  Rusty received a gunshot to the face, but survived.  The assailant attempted to flee in a stolen truck, but pulled over on his own when hr could no longer drive.  He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died.

It was during this time that surviving suspect Kenneth Wayne Simpson, Jr. of Phoenix grabbed a handful of solitaire diamonds and ran to hide in a nearby neighborhood.  With the help of police dogs, officers tracked him and had him in custody by 8:15pm.

Rusty Uptain has made a remarkable recovery and insisted the store, a family-owned small business, reopen on Monday.  According to sister-in-law Nancy Uptain: "This is a small family business and we had two men come in here trying to completely destroy this family's lives...[Rusty is] just not going to let that happen".

Related Articles: