A clerk at Black Creek Grocery foiled an armed robbery Saturday evening, hitting one of the suspects in the head with the cash register drawer.
The Lowndes County Sheriff”s Office was called to the convenience store on Black Creek Road near Military Road at about 6 p.m. after two masked 18- and 19-year-old men pulled guns and demanded money.
The clerk removed the register and hit the nearest suspect on the left side of his head, knocking him to the floor and scattering the cash, said Kim Watkins, who was the only customer in the store at the time.
“He smacked him two or three times and hit him good,” Watkins said.
The two suspects scraped together a small amount of cash and fled the scene in a black Altima, but were spotted near Tuscaloosa Road and Gardner Boulevard at about 6:30 p.m.
They fled the scene on foot, leaving their two handguns in the car. Both men were caught minutes later.
One suspect tried to climb a barbed-wire fence behind the gas station at the intersection of Tuscaloosa and Gardner, but punctured his right hand and scraped his arm.
He was treated by paramedics at the scene of the arrest but did not require hospitalization.
The sheriff”s office did not release the suspects” identities Saturday evening, although the men were charged with armed robbery.
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