Gas station clerk puts up a fight in robbery

Masked gunman bolts with $700

When an armed man walked into a Deerfield Beach gas station and demanded cash, he may have expected the heist to go smoothly.

After all, he had a gun, and the clerk did not. But the masked robber didn’t know Robin Francis.

“I said, ‘No, I’m not going to do that,’” said Francis, 27. “He said he would shoot me, and I said, ‘Then you will have to shoot me.’ ”

Then, Francis grabbed the barrel of the handgun and tried to wrest it away from the robber.

The tussle, which took place just after 1 a.m. Feb. 24 at the Mobil gas station, 901 W. Sample Road, was caught on surveillance video released Thursday by the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

“My focus was on the gun,” said Francis, who had started working at the station only three months earlier. “I knew that I had to get the gun out of his hand, and then we would be on the same level.”

After the robber regained control of the weapon, he ordered Francis to dump the money from a cash drawer into a backpack he had placed on the counter. Again, Francis refused. “I thought if he had to put the money in the pack himself, he’d have to put the gun down,” he said.

Eventually the gunman grabbed

the cash drawer and bolted out the front door with about $700, Francis said. He left the backpack. No shots were fired. Francis, who said he has worked in liquor stores and restaurants since coming here from India several years ago, said he has never before had someone aim a gun at his head.

“From his body language, I felt he wasn’t going to pull the trigger,” Francis said.

Gas station manager Hemant Kumar applauded Francis’s courage.

“He was calm; there was no panic,” Kumar said. “Some people might say [ his resistance] was stupid, but I think it was brave.”

Despite the dangers, Francis said he loves working the overnight shift in a convenience store.

“For a person new to the country, it’s a good way to form connections, meet neighborhood people,” he said.

Before the robbery, he kept the bullet-proof glass window open so he could better interact with his customers.

Francis said he knows he gambled with his life.

“I’m glad that I’m alive. I was plain lucky,” he said. “Now, sometimes, I also feel like I did a stupid thing. But I just didn’t feel like giving him the money.”

The video shows the suspect wearing a printed gray T-shirt, jeans, a Miami Heat baseball cap, and black Nike slides, deputies said.

Authorities ask anyone with information to contact Det. David Agusti at 954-321-4200. Reports can also be made anonymously to Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477) or online at browardcrimestoppers.org