Store clerks pistol-whipped in separate robberies by the same men
BY ZACK STOYCOFF World Staff Writer
Friday, August 17, 2012
8/17/12 at 12:11 PM
Clerks at two convenience stores were pistol-whipped by a group of men who robbed the stores early Friday, Tulsa police said.
Three men roughed up the two clerks and took cash from the Kum & Go stores at 14495 E. 51st St. and 11296 E. 71st St. in robberies about 30 minutes apart, police said.
In the first hold-up, the group grabbed a clerk who tried to flee the store on 51st Street when he saw one of the men carrying a revolver as they entered about 12:30 a.m., police reported.
The men pulled him back and forced him to open the cash register, and one of them struck him in the head at one point with the gun, police said.
The clerk later jumped across the counter and ran to a field across the street, where he waited until the group left. He then ran to a nearby neighborhood and pounded on the door of an off-duty police officer's house, where an unmarked patrol car was parked, police said.
The robbery had already been reported by a customer who arrived to find the store empty and in disarray, police said.
Security camera footage revealed that the same group forced a clerk at the other store to open the cash register about 1 a.m. before they pushed her into a back room and struck her in the head with a gun, police said.
The woman hit the store's panic button, which alerted police about 1:20 a.m., police said. She reportedly told police that she had been in the back room for about 20 minutes as she waited for the robbers to leave.
The robbers were described as black and wore white T-shirts with their faces covered.
In both cases, they reportedly fled in a silver or grey Mercury Grand Marquis.
Anyone with information about them is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS or tulsaworld.com/crimestoppers.
