Early this morning an hour or so before rush hour, as the city was just beginning to rouse, a man wearing jeans and a dark blue jacket was buzzed through the front door of a nondescript storefront on Ferguson Road near its intersection with Shiloh Road. Inside, he pulled a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and pointed it at the doorman, ordering him through a wooden door into an illegal game room, which was, after all, why a nondescript storefront needed a bouncer to buzz people in at 5:30 on a Monday morning.
On the gaming floor, the robber turned his gun on a man sitting near the office door and demanded he empty the machines and give him the money. The man tried to explain that he didn't work there, but the gunman didn't understand or didn't believe him. He stowed the 9mm in his pants and pulled out a revolver.
Confusion ensued as the operator of the game room emerged from the office and the gunman fired once, narrowly missing the bouncer as he tried to wrest the gun away. A gambler, glued to one of the gaming machines, finally realized that something was going on.
After that, the robber hightailed it from the building into a waiting car. He left empty-handed, but the police who showed up shortly after did not. Upon arrival, an officer noticed two loaded clips atop a small dresser in the office. Inside the top drawer was a 9mm Hi Point pistol and four shotgun slugs. He found a 12-gauge Mossberg pump-action shotgun beneath the couch; on top of the couch was $1,000 cash, stacked by denomination.
Officers also couldn't help but notice that there were several gambling machines, concluding that the "Diamond Club," as it was called was actually an illegal gambling operation. That was for the vice squad, however, so they seized the weapons and left.
