Male with loaded gun tries to rob people in car. But driver also is armed — and things don't end well for alleged crook.

Police in Glendale, California, told KABC-TV a 37-year-old male with a loaded weapon tried to rob two people sitting in an SUV on Sunday night. But the driver, who also was armed, turned the tables and fatally shot the assailant.

Officers responded to the 200 block of East Dryden Street around 10:40 p.m. and found a male in the middle of the road with a single gunshot wound, police told the station.

'If somebody finds themselves in a situation where their life is in danger or someone else's life is in danger, I as a ... community member, as a citizen, would do whatever I could to protect myself and anybody else.'

Investigators determined that the male they found — identified Tuesday as Edward Mazon, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office — approached the pair and tried to rob them, KABC said. Police added to the station that the driver of the SUV "apparently shot Mazon, then drove away."

Mazon was pronounced dead at the scene, KABC said, and police are trying to locate the pair who were in the SUV. Authorities are viewing them as victims, not as suspects facing any murder charges, KNBC-TV said

Sgt. Vahe Abramyan, a spokesperson for the Glendale Police Department, added to KNBC that "everything's possible, but at this point, it appears that they are victims."

Police told KNBC-TV that several people called 911, and more than a dozen neighbors watched paramedics perform CPR on a man in the middle of Dryden Street near Brand Boulevard.

“I saw the EMT do the chest compressions, like furiously, [I] had no idea what was going on," resident Terri Robertson told KNBC. "And then a minute later, they're covering him with a sheet."

Robertson added to the station that if the victims were held at gunpoint, she supports them fighting back: “I would say they have to, I would say they have to, because crime is getting really crazy everywhere."

Abramyan added to KNBC that "if somebody finds themselves in a situation where their life is in danger or someone else's life is in danger, I as a ... community member, as a citizen, would do whatever I could to protect myself and anybody else. You are responsible ultimately for the actions that you commit, but if it's a life or death situation, that's going to be a judgment call on that person.”

Those with information about the shooting are urged to contact the Glendale Police Robbery/Homicide detectives at 818-548-3987 or the police department at 818 549-4911, KABC said.

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