St. Louis is one of the many Democrat-controlled locales that’s seen a sharp increase in the number of shootings in their city, but on Wednesday night at least one victim was able to fight back. KSDK-TV reports that after an armed robber targeted a convenience store in the city Wednesday evening, he received an unwelcome surprise.

The robbery happened at around 11:35 a.m. at New Carrie’s Corner Market at 4500 Athlone Avenue in the O’Fallon neighborhood. A man entered the store, pointed a gun at two victims and demanded money from the cash register, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said.

As one of the victims, a 55-year-old man, was getting money out of the register, a 46-year-old woman pulled out her own gun and fired shots at the suspect.

According to authorities, the armed robber took off running when the armed citizen began firing. He managed to get away with some cash, but thankfully neither of the victims of the robbery were injured.

The quick response from the armed citizen comes at a time when the Trump administration is taking steps to crack down on the increased violence in the city. U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen announced this week that 25 people have been arrested on federal charges in the city as part of the Department of Justice’s Operation LeGend.

Of those, 21 people have been charged with drug trafficking offenses. The other four have been charged with various crimes including robbery and firearm violations.

“Operation Legend – Saint Louis represents a unique federal partnership with local law enforcement to address the increase in homicides and violent crime in Saint. Louis in 2020,” said U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen. “Today’s announcement highlights the impactful work the brave men and women of the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, DEA, ATF, the U.S. Marshals Service and Missouri State Highway Patrol have accomplished in Operation Legend’s early stages.  Of course, there is more important work to be done.”

While the increased presence of local, state, and federal law enforcement in St. Louis is a welcome sign, it’s also good to see armed citizens like the anonymous woman mentioned above who are standing up for themselves and even total strangers in the face of violent criminals. After all, most of the policing that Jensen talked about deals with post-crime investigations. While it’s absolutely critical that arrests get made, when it comes to thwarting crimes in progress, it’s rare that any law enforcement officer will be in the right place at the right time to stop an ongoing armed robbery, carjacking, or home invasion. Most likely, the intended victims of those crimes is going to have to square off against those criminals by themselves, and being armed for self-defense helps to even the odds of survival.