Dollar store clerk fights off armed man

MARLBOROUGH, N.Y. » A dollar store clerk faced with an armed would-be robber who threatened to shoot him was able to fight off the attacker, who fled and remains at large, the town police chief said Monday.

“Kudos to the employee,” said Chief Gerald Cocozza.

Normally, the chief said, he wouldn’t recommend resisting an armed attacker, but “under the circumstances, it was his only alternative.”

The incident happened just after 10:30 p.m. Sunday in a Dollar General store at 2 Riverview Drive in Marlborough, police said. Police did not identify the employee Monday because the incident remains under investigation.

The chief said the man suffered a “small scrape or scratch to his hand” but did not require medical attention. Another employee also was present but did not fight with the armed man, Cocozza said.

Police were told a man entered the store wearing dark clothing, a black mask, sunglasses and gloves and had what looked like a black semiautomatic handgun.

Shortly after entering the store, the man confronted an employee at gunpoint and directed him to the rear of the store, where he told him he was going to shoot him, Cocozza said. At that point, the pair struggled briefly and the suspect fled the store on foot without any money or items from the store.

Marlborough police were being assisted in their search by state police and the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, with dogs.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Marlborough Police Detective Nicholas Geremino at (845) 795-2181.