A pair of armed robbers in Charlotte had the tables turned on them Monday night, when their intended victim got his hands on a firearm and put at least one bullet into one of the criminals, who later died.

Cue the tiny violins:

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say a man died late Monday night after being shot by a man he was trying to rob.

Police have identified the dead man as Darlanski Lamar Sherrill, 22. They said he died a short time after a report of an attempted robbery in the 1100 block of Jordans Pond Lane, off Valleydale Road in northwest Charlotte.

Investigators said the series of events began a few minutes after 9 p.m., when they received a call about an armed robbery. The person who called said he was in his yard when he was confronted by two men. He said one of the men, armed with a gun, forced him into his house and tried to rob him.

The man said the suspect beat him with the gun. But the caller apparently got his hands on a gun, because he told police he was able to shoot his attacker.

The pair of suspects—both with existing criminal records—were spotted shortly after the robbery was reported, driving erratically 8 miles away. Sherrill jumped out of the getaway car and tried to run, but didn’t  get very far. He was apprehended, and died at the hospital.

Sherrill’s accomplice, Don Antonio Morrison, was arrested and charged with armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery. As Sherrill died during the commission of a felony, it is my opinion that Morrison should be charged with first degree murder under the felony murder rule as well, where anyone who participates in the commission of a felony can be charged with murder for any death resulting from that crime.

At this time, the details of the actual shooting are a bit murky. It isn’t known if the homeowner disarmed Sherrill and shot him with his own gun, if Sherrill was shot during a struggle for the firearm, or if the homeowner was able to bring a gun of his own into play.

What we do know is that a there is now one less criminal to be a burden on the criminal justice system in the state of North Carolina, and that his accomplice could, with a good prosecutor, spend the rest of his life in jail without the possibility of parole, or on death row.

I suspect that we’ll be hearing from Sherrill’s family members any minute now, telling us how he was just misunderstood, and that he’d still be alive today if that selfish homeowner had just given him everything he demanded at gunpoint.