Susan Khalil receives the Chief's Award for Valor from St.Paul police chief John Harrington.
The St. Paul police chief, upon hearing about Susana Khalil shooting a would-be thief, thought, "Now that's an East Sider."
By ANTHONY LONETREE, Star Tribune
Last update: February 26, 2009 - 9:23 PM
Two years ago, Susana Khalil, eight months pregnant and with a toddler daughter at her side, shot a would-be robber at her husband's convenience store on St. Paul's East Side.
Six months later, her husband sold the place, Khalil said, and she was relieved.
But there Thursday morning, stopping by the Super USA store for old time's sake, was Khalil, 35, this time with a Chief's Award of Valor around her neck.
Police Chief John Harrington, who lives near the store at Earl Street and Maryland Avenue, honored Khalil on Thursday for her heroism. During a ceremony at police headquarters, he
said he was amazed she had the presence of mind to protect herself and her daughter with a woman bearing down on her with her hand in a bag pointed at Khalil's head.
"Horrific," the chief called the threat. The suspect, Angel Star Kaster, shot by Khalil in the left shoulder, pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated robbery in the 2007 incident. She'd used a TV remote control in the bag to simulate a handgun.
At Thursday's ceremony, which honored other civilians and law-enforcement personnel, too, Khalil stood alone with hands folded as the chief spoke. She offered only a polite "thank you" after he draped the medal around her neck. Later, however, she recalled the woman's "wild eyes," and acknowledged: "I was scared."
She went to the store that night, she said, to have pizza with her husband, Joe Khalil, who then asked her to mind the counter while he made a quick run to Cub Foods. Before he left, she said, he told her there was a gun under the cigarette racks.
Kaster entered the store, she said, while daughter Vivian was playing with lottery tickets beside her. The woman headed toward a cooler near the counter, but then charged at the pregnant Khalil.