Robbery suspect sought after gun misfires while trying to shoot Boyle Heights clerk
BOYLE HEIGHTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Authorities are searching for a robbery suspect whose gun misfired when he tried to shoot an employee.
Los Angeles police released surveillance video from the robbery that happened last Saturday at a Boyle Heights Metro PCS store, located in the 900 block of North Forest Avenue.
Surveillance video from outside the store shows the suspect walking up to the door, pinching the fabric in his hoodie as he gets closer.
The clerk who he robbed said the man tripped on the center divider in the lot as he was coming in and his gun came out. As the man got inside, the clerk told a woman and her child who were in the store to run to the bathroom.
"He comes in with a gun and I just started taking everything out and I tell him just take everything," she said. "He didn't care that there were kids in here and he actually pointed the gun at the kids."
Video from inside the store shows the gunman demanding money and waving his weapon. The employee puts cash in a bag and the gunman pulls the trigger on his weapon at least twice.
"He's obviously cursing, telling me to take all the money out and then he's pointing the gun at my head the whole time. All I could see is inside the barrel," she said. "I heard him pull the trigger. He pulled the trigger...in my head I was like, 'Where am I shot?' But then the gun was straight to my head and I was like, 'How am I still talking?'"
"I was like, 'God, please don't let it happen.' You just feel powerless. I started wondering, 'God, if it's my last day, just make it quick.'"
Nothing appears to happen and the suspect flees the scene. The video captured the suspect's face briefly as he entered the store.
The victim believes the gunman intended to kill her because he wouldn't have loaded the gun if he was trying to scare her. When he fled, she ran to the phone and called 911.
Anyone who recognizes the suspect is urged to call the LAPD Hollenbeck Division at (323) 342-4100.
