Would-be victim grabs suspect's gun and beats him with it, ending robbery spree

MOBILE, Al 
A delivery truck driver snatched a shotgun from a would-be robber and and beat him with it Thur. morning, helping to end the suspect’s 2-day robbery spree, Mobile police said.

Chauncey Philan

Chauncey Lamar Philan, 19, was taken to Mobile County Metro Jail early Thursday evening and charged with 3 counts of 1st-degree robbery, police spokesman Cpl. Christopher Levy.
Chickasaw police spokesman Lt. Brad Penton said that Philan was to be charged again with 1st-degree robbery in connection with a robbery Wednesday morning in that city.
Levy said that Philan approached a delivery truck driver at the Food World on Dauphin Island Parkway around dawn Thursday and pointed a shotgun at the intended victim, demanding money.
But the driver grabbed the shotgun and beat the robber several times with it, Levy said, and the robber ran off. Police located Philan not long afterward, Levy said.
Levy said that the shotgun was recovered.
The Food World incident followed a day in which Philan committed 2 other robberies in Mobile, Levy said.
Philan is also charged in connection with the robbery of an individual at the Walmart on the I-65 service road in Mobile at 2:10 a.m. Wednesday and the Checkers at 2300 St. Stephens Road at 3:15 a.m.
Penton said the robbery Philan is accused of in Chickasaw took place shortly after 4 a.m. Wednesday when a tractor-trailer driver for Southern Ionics was making a delivery at the company plant in the Port of Chickasaw.
Penton said that the driver noticed being followed by a Cadillac after making an earlier delivery in Satsuma, and when he pulled up to the gate, the men pulled alongside. One of them asked for directions to Bay Minette, Penton said.
When the men asked the driver to write the directions down, one of them came out of the car with a shotgun and demanded the driver’s wallet.
The driver dropped the wallet getting it out of his pocket, and he told the robbers to pick it up themselves. When the man with the shotgun did, he pulled money and the driver’s health card out, then threw the wallet back, Penton said.
Penton added that a Prichard truck driver on the same morning reported 2 men in a car asking him for directions to Dauphin Island, but the trucker drove off when he noticed a shotgun inside the car.
Levy said that Philan was also being investigated in connection with other recent robberies.