It’s not nice to point guns at other people, and there is a distinct possibility that if you do such a thing, they might point one back at you.

A person intent on robbing a Miramar restaurant was shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire with a restaurant employee, police said.

The attempted armed robbery happened at Captain Max Seafood Restaurant in Miramar.

Police said before 6 p.m. Wednesday, a masked man armed with a gun entered the restaurant. After a verbal exchange with an employee, the employee pulled a gun, fired and killed the man attempting to rob the store.

It’s unclear if both men fired weapons.

According to other news accounts, the “verbal exchange” was not along the lines of “please  don’t hurt me,” but was more of an argument between the robber and the employee, with the employee retrieving his weapon during the argument and then opening fire. It’s also not clear if there was really an “exchange” of gunfire, as other accounts suggest that only the employee fired shots.

Police took the employee into custody for question, and cautioned people against “taking matters into their own hands.”

I’m reading between the lines here and could very well be wrong, but I suspect the robber was trying to pull off a crime with an airsoft or pellet gun, against an armed employee who recognized the brandished weapon for what it was, and saw this as a chance to do some “street cleaning.” This might explain the apparent exasperation of the police.

A hair salon down the street said that a man who may have been the robbery suspect appeared to be casing their establishment two hours before.