Neighborhood watch volunteers carry guns

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Armed neighbors are now patrolling the Central Avenue business district in response to a shooting and three armed robberies at nearby businesses.

Overall, neighbors and police say the area is safe.

The Neighborhood Watch Alliance, started by Scott Yamanashi, includes nightly patrols from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Yamanashi says there are up to 20 members who wish to remain anonymous. Nearly all, he says, have conceal and carry permits and take their handguns with them during their patrols.

"It's the pattern of crime, the brazenness of criminals and me getting shot, which may have culminated into this movement,” Yamanashi said.

He was shot in the arm earlier this year while breaking up an armed robbery at the Snug Harbor Bar.

"We want to draw a line in the sand and say this is enough," he said.

His injury prompted the idea of armed citizen patrols.

"We just want to be an added set of eyes and ears. A neighborhood watch that has some teeth,” he said.

Yamanashi says the patrols are already paying off by calling police about strangers hanging around people’s homes and businesses.

"Casing, I guess you could call it," he said.

Police say they support the group’s Second Amendment rights. But one blogger says he'd feel better if the guns stayed at home and hopes wisdom and patience prevail if there's ever an armed encounter.

Police caught the man who shot Yamanashi but his accomplice is still out there. Yamanashi says if he comes across him, he's reaching for his cell phone. He says it's about neighbors being vigilant, not becoming vigilantes.

"If I take the law into my own hands then that would be vigilantism. But, under the Second Amendment I have the right to basically patrol my neighborhood and carry a firearm for my own protection," he said.

Yamanashi does not have a conceal-carry permit. He says even for members who do, their first action will be calling 911 if they see a problem.

Yamanashi hopes the alliance gets enough volunteers to expand into Dilworth and North Davidson business districts as well.