Store owner shields mother and child during shootout in West Philly

WEST PHILADELPHIA (FOX 29) - A local store owner is being credited with saving the lives of a mother and her child when he shielded them during a shootout in broad daylight in West Philadelphia.

On most days outside of West Phillie Produce you'll see a bustling community corner, but just 24 hours gunfire erupted.

"This one is crouching down and shooting this way. There's customers in the store screaming," West Phillie Produce owner Arnett Woodall said.

25 shots were fired on Arnett Woodall's front doorstep. Two men started firing at each other in the middle of the afternoon near 62nd and Ludlow.

Woodall grabbed three of his customers, including a 9-year-old girl. They credit Woodall for saving their lives. Luckily, no one was hit.

"He literally threw us down on the ground and we just laid there," the mother said.

She didn't want to be identified but the mother of that little girl who simply was buying a smoothie when those shots were fired came here Thursday to say thanks.

"I was just frozen and that's why I was so grateful he was there because we both would have been just standing there," she explained.

Woodall and FOX 29's Chris O'Connell go back a few years. FOX 29 profiled how he cleaned up and took back this corner from drug dealers. Years later, his mission to build up this community continues. Although he says it is a daily battle.

"People in communities don't deserve to have to live like that just to come out and get a smoothie," Woodall said.