A Waffle House restaurant in Little Rock was robbed at gunpoint twice on Sunday, police reported.
Officers first responded at about 2 a.m. to the business at 3202 Bankhead Drive, just south of Interstate 440 and Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field. Employees said a masked man armed with an "assault rifle" took a cash register and fled on foot, according to a police report. There were no injuries. The restaurant did not disclose how much money was taken in the holdup, the report states.
Police searched the area but made no arrests.
The robber is described as black, light-skinned, 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighing 160 pounds.
Officers were called to the restaurant again about 10:44 p.m., shortly after a man wearing a ski mask went inside the business and pointed a silver handgun at employees, according to a separate police report. The robber struck one of the employees in the head with the pistol. He then took a cash register and fled.
The robber was last seen running on East 33rd Street, south of the restaurant, according to the report.
No injuries were reported.
The robber is described as black, 6 feet tall and weighing 170 pounds. He wore a blue shirt with white letters, bluejeans and red-and-white shoes.
No arrests had been made in either holdup as of Monday.
Police spokesman officer Richard Hilgeman said he did not have information on whether the robberies are connected. He said an investigation is ongoing.
"The robbery detectives are still working the case and don't have any kind of comment right now," he said.
Hilgeman, a 10-year veteran of the department, said it's unusual for a business to be robbed more than once in a day.
"I don't know that I've seen anything happen with that kind of turnaround ... We've had places robbed several times in the course of week or so, but within 24 hours is rare," he said.
The robberies Sunday were the second and third at the Waffle House this year. Two men robbed the business at gunpoint July 18, police reported. They struck an employee with a pistol, kicked the employee and then took a cash register.
There have been no arrests in that case.
Police had logged 114 business robberies this year as of Sept. 5, the last date such data were available. That's seven more than the number recorded through the same date last year.
The total number of robberies recorded in Little Rock through Sept. 5 was 407, compared with 441 during the same period in 2015.
Metro on 09/13/2016