By MATTHEW NESTEL, JAMIE SCHRAM and LUKAS I. ALPERT
COURAGE: Charles Augusto Jr., yesterday at his Harlem shop, made good on the warning above him. "They had a chance to leave," he said.
Posted: 3:32 am
August 15, 2009
CONTINUED
"I had to shoot them. It was a tough thing to do," he said. "I have to live with that. I'm sad that there are mothers and fathers who lost sons."
But Augusto's beaten employee -- who would only give his name as J.B. -- had little sympathy.
"S- - - went real bad for them, not for me," he said. "I'm breathing. They dead."
The 35-year-old had nothing but praise for his boss.
"I know Gus is a good dude. He's looked out for me since I was 19," he said. "He saved my life, man."
Augusto said: "I don't feel like a hero. I would have felt like a hero if I'd talked that kid down and into going home."
It wasn't the first time lowlifes had tried to rob Augusto. After a robbery 20 years ago, he bought the pump-action shotgun and stuck it under his desk. Until Thursday, he'd never had to use it.
"I hadn't touched it all this time. I didn't even know if it would work," he said. "I never fired it all this time."
But he left it loaded, just in case.
"If every single citizen were allowed to hold a gun, there would be less carjackings and robberies," he said.
Augusto's gun was properly registered with police, and he does not face any charges, authorities said.
The Coast Guard vet, who was born in Yonkers and lives with his wife of 48 years in Irvington, Westchester County, said he had been selling commercial kitchen equipment for nearly 50 years and had no intention of quitting.
"What's the worst they could do? Shoot me? I guess so. I'm not going to lay down and die. I'm just not going to," he said.
J.B. said his boss likes to do things "the old-fashioned way."
"Of course, he's going to keep open," he said.
Augusto and his employees tried to get back to business as usual yesterday, although it wasn't easy. When a woman came to place a candle outside the shop, J.B. angrily kicked it across the pavement.
"Who's this for?" he demanded of the startled woman. "For the guy who died? F- - - him!"
Additional reporting by Lachlan Cartwright, Shari Logan and Larry Celona