MESQUITE, Texas — Police in Mesquite are asking for the public's help identifying two men who attempted to rob the Instant Cash 4 Gold store off of North Town East Boulevard last Thursday.
One of the men was armed, which led to the store's owner, 57-year-old Tien Tran, pulling out a handgun in defense, sparking a gunfight between the parties.
Security footage shared with WFAA by Tran shows how it all went down: Two males enter the store, as Tran tends to a golf bag behind some office dividers.
Tran told WFAA he was getting prepared for a golf tournament with his high school son that he was set to play the next day.
In the video, one of the suspects can be seen wearing a mask, whereas the other has his hood up.
As the footage shows. Tran reaches for his handgun as soon as one of the suspects pulls his.
Tran then fires a warning shot, and the suspect fires three rounds back, prompting Tran to return fire.
The suspects then book it out of the store, and Tran calmly walks to the front to see if they're coming back.
No one was injured in the shootout, and Tran says damage to the store was pretty minimal -- only a few bullet holes in the walls, and one in a display case.
When he went to that golf tournament, however, Tran noticed a bullet hole in his bag. His sunglasses, which he'd placed in the bag earlier in the day, were shattered and had a massive round hole in one of its lenses.
This isn't the first time that Tran has had a run-in with armed robbers.
Roughly five years ago, he told WFAA, an armed robber entered his store and held a handgun to his head. In that incident, Tran said he convinced the man to take some belongings -- and, in the process, he says the gunman's magazine fell out of the gun. At that point, Tran said he was able to wrestle the suspect to the ground and fire a warning shot near his ear with his handgun, after which the man ran from the store.
In July 2019, Tran also had to deal with two armed men who pulled handguns and attempted to rob him by climbing over the display case in this store. In that video -- seen above -- Tran again fires a warning shot and scares the suspects away.
In January of this year, WFAA interviewed Tran after a significant $2 million jewel heist went down inside a jewelry store at Town East Mall. Tran said at the time that the area had been getting rough, and that thieves had taken $75,000 in merchandise that he was taking to his house from his car when he stopped at a store on his way home.