The manager of a Chicago T-Mobile store is singing the praises of one of his employees who pulled his concealed handgun and took the fight to two armed robbers yesterday, putting both of the bad guys in the hospital.

Two robbery suspects were shot by an employee at a cell phone store in the Jeffrey Manor neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.

The T-Mobile store in the 2000-block of East 95th St. was left riddled with bullet holes. If not for the employee carrying a weapon with a concealed carry license, the manager of the store says he might be telling a different story.

“I think concealed carry is a great opportunity for managers, workers, employees to protect themselves in these cases. And our employee did a great job to protect themselves and the other employee,” said Neil Tadros, store manager.

He says two men entered the store and acted like they were shopping for phones for a few minutes, then pulled out guns.

One employee ran to the back to call for help while the other pulled out his own gun and fired at the two suspects. He hit one of them in the groin and the arm, and the other in the abdomen and the arm.

The men ran from the store with the employee chasing them, on the phone giving a description to police.

The suspects then drove to a nearby hospital where police took them into custody.

Both of the bad guys ran instead of engaging the concealed carrier, and managed to escape even after taking two bullets each. Don’t expect bad guys to fall just because they’ve taken hits. They likely have friends who have been shot and survived, and may have been shot themselves committing prior crimes. Don’t plan on firing one or two shots. Plan on engaging until the threat presented no longer exists.

By that, we mean that you should engage a threatening person until they stop being a threat. If they run, drop their weapon, or otherwise stop being a lethal force threat after your first controlled pair or hammer, that’s great. If they continue to present themselves as a threat after you’ve made good hits to the upper chest, you need to work your failure drill, moving shots to the head and pelvis and perhaps back again to the chest if the threat continues. People who are on drugs or who are simply very determined can absorb a lot of handgun bullets and continue to function for 30 seconds to a minute even after taking fatal hits. Keep working the problem until it is resolved.

The concealed carrier in this instance made a major tactical mistake, but survived to tell his tale.

What was it?