VIDEO: Store owner shoots 2 during robbery try, police say

January 5, 2011 at 10:11 a.m. | Updated January 5, 2011 at 11:43 a.m.

by Gavin Lesnick

A Little Rock Police Department detective works at the scene where two injured men pulled off called for help on Interstate 430. The men had been shot during a robbery try at a nearby grocery store, police said.
A Little Rock Police Department detective works at the scene where two injured men pulled off called for help on Interstate 430. The men had been shot during a robbery try at a nearby grocery store, police said.

LITTLE ROCK — A grocery store owner shot two armed men Wednesday morning as they tried to rob his business in southwest Little Rock, seriously injuring both assailants.

It happened just before 10 a.m. at Joe's Grocery and Deli at 12223 Colonel Glenn Road.

A grocery store owner shot two people during a robbery try, police said.

Store owner shoots 2 during purported robbery

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One of the robbers was hit in the chest and arm and the other was shot in the leg. The injuries may be life-threatening, Little Rock Police Department Lt. Terry Hastings said.

Click here to watch a video interview from the scene.

After being shot, the two men fled the store in an Oldsmobile Alero. But Hastings said they made it only as far as Interstate 430, where they pulled off just past the northbound Colonel Glenn entrance ramp and called 911 for help.

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Photo by Gavin Lesnick

A police car sits outside Joe's Grocery and Deli after a robbery try Wednesday in which two men were shot by the store owner.

A shoe and bloodied clothes were visible on the ground outside the car, where police roped off a crime scene and restricted traffic from getting onto the highway.

Back at the store, the parking lot was cordoned off as detectives and crime scene officers worked the scene. Blood was visible on a beer sign in the window.

No one besides the purported robbers was injured, but Hastings said the store owner - whose name he did not know - was transported to the hospital to be checked out.

The names of the men who were shot have not been released. Hastings said police will work to see if they are tied to any other robberies.

PREVIOUSLY

Police are responding to a report of a store owner or employee in Little Rock opening fire on would-be robbers.

Little Rock Police Department Lt. Terry Hastings said shots were fired at the subject around 9:50 a.m. during a reported robbery at Joe's Grocery, 12223 Colonel Glenn Road. The men then fled the scene in a vehicle, Hastings said, adding police are unsure whether they were actually hit.

The suspects were thought to have fled on Interstate 430.

Police officers have surrounded a wrecked car on northbound I-430 at Colonel Glenn and are preventing vehicles from getting onto the interstate from that ramp.

A man who answered the phone at Joe's Grocery shortly after 10 a.m. said he could not talk and then hung up.

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