Friday, February 24, 2006
The robber threatened to kill the store clerks if they called the police.
STRUTHERS -- City police say they have a couple of suspects, but have made no arrests in Tuesday's armed robbery of the Family Dollar store at 444 Youngstown-Poland Road.
Store clerks said a white male, wearing a white hat and dark-colored jacket and trousers, entered the store at about 6:30 p.m. and later approached the checkout counter with a can of spray cleaner and a bottle of Coca Cola. He began tapping the counter as the items were being rung up. The clerks then noticed he had a black semiautomatic pistol in his hand.
According to the clerks, the robber said: "I don't want to hurt anyone tonight, so give me all the money." The clerks complied, and as he was leaving, the robber said, "If you call the cops I'll kill you."
He escaped with $857 in cash, the spray cleaner and the Coca Cola. A store customer told police the robber fled west on foot across Youngstown-Poland Road and continued west on Everett Street. The customer followed the robber through rear yards between Midlothian and Everett until he no longer saw him, police said.
Police searched the area without turning up a suspect. Boardman Police Department's K-9 unit dog then tracked the robber from in front of 2030 Everett west through several yards, then north between 2020 and 2014 Everett to a chain-link fence, where the police dog lost the scent.
The robber is described as about 6 feet tall and weighing about 250 pounds, with short hair and possibly brown eyes.