Tuesday, May 24, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.
When Bing Ji married Amy Ho in China 13 years ago, his wife presented him with a beautiful $5,000 ring made in Thailand -- a woven gold band with a large opal moonstone in the center.
Ji decided the ring was too precious to give up to robbers. That decision nearly cost him his life.
Early Monday Ji, 52, was shot in the shoulder while running for his life during an armed robbery at his business, Superior Foot Massage, 2221 Paradise Road north of Sahara.
Ji was working about 2:30 a.m. when two men entered his shop and pointed a handgun at him. They demanded money, and Ji handed it over.
But when they told him they also wanted his wedding ring, Ji balked.
"I said, 'No, that's my wife's ring. You don't take that,' " Ji said Monday after being released from the hospital.
"I was nice. I smiled. I gave them good money. But they ran around looking for more. They grabbed the ring, but it wouldn't come off," Ji said.
That's when one of the gunmen hit Ji in the side of his head with the butt of the handgun. Ji shoved the gunman and ran down a hallway leading to the massage rooms as the gunman fired four times from about 15 feet away.
Three of the bullets struck the wall beside Ji. One bullet grazed the back of Ji's shoulder.
Ji was taken to University Medical Center where he was treated and released. The owner of several businesses since coming to Las Vegas 10 years ago, Ji was back at work Monday morning, rubbing the bump on his head and showing off the bullet marks on the walls of his shop.
"These same guys tried to rob another place, first but they got no money," Ji said. "They were very angry."
As he spoke, Ji wore the same clothes from the night before, including a gray sweatshirt with bloodstains on the shoulder. He also marveled at the video footage he had of the robbers.
Metro Police confirmed that the gunmen escaped with an unknown amount of cash, but video cameras Ji installed a year ago when he opened the foot massage business showed crystal-clear images of the men's faces.
Ji said police told him the men had robbed at least three other businesses in the area since last week. Metro Police Sgt. Chris Jones, a department spokesman, could not confirm that the men are suspects in any other robberies.
"We're looking into that. Often times these people don't do one robbery," Jones said. "We're working on identifying the suspects."
Still, Ji believes he did the right thing in protecting his wife's ring. As a former soldier, he said he wasn't afraid of the men -- just surprised that they wanted more than money.
"My wife is a good person. She's very lovely. I just said you can't take it," Ji said.
He looked around his shop -- walls adorned with golden Chinese art and lettering, a large golden Buddha statue mounted on a table beside the hallway door. The reality of the day's events began setting in, and Ji shook his head.
"I'm just very lucky, I guess," Ji said. "My wife said I was crazy. She said, 'Don't worry about me. That ring was not as important as your life.' "
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