Fall River Clerk Fights Off Armed Suspect With Wooden Chair
FALL RIVER (CBS) - Store surveillance video shows a robber using a knife to try and make his point.
"He thought I was just going to open the drawer up and give him the money," said Kenny Smith, who was working the graveyard shift at a Fall River Shell station. "And, he found out different."
Around 5:00 a.m. Wednesday, a man briefly walked in and out, then he came back with a knife.
"He pulled out a knife and started telling me to open the drawer and I was telling him I wasn't going to open the drawer, to leave, get out," said Smith.
The video shows the man shimmying onto the counter still jabbing at Smith with the weapon.
After seeing the video, manager Mina Salih was thankful his employee wasn't sliced in the stomach.
"I worry about him because when the guy has the knife it almost reaches his stomach," said Salih.
They haven't been robbed in several years. Salih recently put a hammer underneath the counter.
Smith though used the wooden chair to distance himself from his attacker. He says the knife came close his hand a couple times.
"I was more aggravated that he was trying to steal from me," said Smith.
In the video, the robber never tried to go around the counter and apparently, fed up with Smith's chair barrier, grabbed a bunch of cigarettes and walked out.
He also took with him some of Smith's goodwill. "I might not open the door as early as I had been opening it," said Smith.
"You know, I try to help out people. I am just trying to work a job, doing, make a living," Smith said.
The man's face is very clear in the surveillance video and police hope someone recognizes him.
As for Smith he went back to work after the attack.
Anyone with information regarding the identity of the suspect is asked to contact Detective Luis Vertentes at 508-676-8511, ext. 260, or LVertentes@frpd.org.
