PORTAGE PARK — Sarkon Khoshava was sitting at the counter of his liquor store Tuesday night, passing the time by watching a movie.
Suddenly, at 9:11 p.n. two men entered the store wearing hooded sweatshirts and masks over their mouths. "Move back!" they shouted. "I'll blow your f---ing head off!"
"I thought it was a joke," Khoshava said, the owner of Friendly Food & Liquor, 4262 N. Milwaukee Ave. "I'd never been robbed before. But these guys meant business."
As it turns out, Khoshava meant business, too., exchanging gunfire with the robbers.
Security footage captured the whole incident, which lasted about two minutes before the robbers fled.
One of the men, wearing a gray hoodie, kept his gun pointed at Khoshava's face while the other man, wearing a black hoodie, ran behind the counter and filled a backpack with liquor bottles. He scooped about $100 from the cash register then grabbed Khoshava's iPhone and his gun case, apparently not knowing that it was empty, Khoshava said.
The men ran outside to an older-model silver van, where at least one other person was waiting for them, Khoshava said.
When Khoshava followed them outside to check the van's license plate number, the armed man turned back and fired two shots at the storefront, he said. Khoshava then pulled out his own gun and fired "a couple times" in their direction, hitting the van's back windshield.
Friendly Food & Liquor, 4262 N. Milwaukee Ave., was robbed at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday. [DNAinfo/Alex Nitkin]
"I don't know if I hit them," he added. "I don't think I did."
The next day, bullet holes remained above the store's front window, from where the robbers had fired.
Khoshava had never experienced a robbery in the seven years he's operated the store, he said.
"Of course I'm afraid this will happen again," Khoshava said. "I don't know where these guys are."
The building's landlord, who declined to say his name, said Tuesday's robbery was the building's first non-domestic break-in since he took ownership of it 20 years ago.
The robbers appeared to be Hispanic men in their early 20s, Khoshava said. They stood between 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 11 inches tall.
No arrests have been made as the investigation is ongoing, according to police.
Bullet holes remained in the ceiling where one of the robbers shot at Khoshava. [DNAinfo/Alex Nitkin]
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