Jewelry-store owner, bandit die in holdup

BILL GLATZ didn't know it, but one of the men who kept coming back to his Northeast Philadelphia jewelry store last week to look at merchandise was an escaped prisoner bent on robbing him.

When Kevin Turner, 22, and another man returned yesterday for a third time, they announced a robbery, leading to a shoot-out that left Glatz and Turner dead, police and prison officials said.

Glatz was in the rear of his William Glatz Jewelers on Rising Sun Avenue near Passmore Street, opened decades ago by his German-immigrant father, when the two bandits came in shortly before 11 a.m. and announced the heist, said police Homicide Lt. Philip Riehl. One of them put a gun to a 72-year-old female employee's head, Riehl said, and she pushed it away and tried to run.

The gunman yelled, "Get her!" and then gunfire erupted between Glatz and the gunman, Riehl said.

Glatz was shot in the chest and rushed to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Prison officials confirmed last night that Turner, who escaped from Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on Oct. 12, was shot dead. But police refused to release the dead assailant's identity, pending notification of relatives.

Turner, of Lehigh Avenue near Front Street, had been imprisoned on drug, firearm and burglary charges.

It was uncertain whether the other bandit, who fled empty-handed and who remained on the loose last night, was injured in the shoot-out.

Two employees were with Glatz in the store but apparently were not injured. No customers were in the store, police said.

It wasn't the first time that Glatz's store had been targeted.

Glatz pulled a gun during another attempted robbery about six months ago, and the thief quickly left, said nearby businessman Salvatore Lavalle.

Most of the business owners in the area now are armed, Lavalle said. He recounted a series of crimes in recent years.

"A couple stores down they pistol-whipped one of the store owners," he said. "A block down at another store, they put a gun to [an owner's] throat and said, 'Give me the money.' "

The owner of a nearby Chinese restaurant was killed and the bank across the street has been robbed, Lavalle said.

Despite the previous attempted holdup, Glatz did not install a buzzer to monitor who entered the store, said Lavalle, who runs a security business.

Police spokesman Lt. Ray Evers said that the store had security cameras and that investigators were reviewing the tapes yesterday.

"This is the death knell for the commercial district," said Tom Glennon, a retired Philadelphia fire captain who lives in Lawndale, where the store is situated.

When crime began to stalk the neighborhood, Glatz talked about leaving, Lavalle said.

Glatz, who also did jewelry repair, opened another jewelry store in Jamison, Bucks County, that his wife, Donna, ran. But he never closed the store on Rising Sun Avenue because he couldn't face leaving his old customers and his memories, Lavalle said.

The Rising Sun Avenue store is in an area that was a thriving German community when the Glatzes moved in nearly 70 years ago after immigrating from southern Germany.

They stocked it with Hummel figurines and cuckoo clocks, said Al Taubenberger, president of the Greater Northeast Chamber of Commerce and a Glatz family friend.

Taubenberger, who stopped in recently to buy his wife a present, said he bought his wedding ring at the jewelers.

"He was a guy that really cared about people," Taubenberger said.

As police yesterday hunted for the second gunman, friends of Glatz mourned his loss as an unconscionable assault on "a meek and mild man."

"It's just a tragedy," said Charlie McKeown, a Cheltenham Township commissioner who used to own a beverage business down the block from Glatz's store. "This fella knew his customers, mostly, all by name. He was such a strong, good neighbor. You just never know, do you? Any given day."

Daily News columnist Ronnie Polaneczky contributed to this report.