Employee beaten by robber at auto parts store in NLR

An auto parts store employee was pistol whipped and left bloodied during a robbery last week.

Three employees were inside the AutoZone store at 400 Camp Robinson Road shortly after 9:30 p.m. Friday when two gunmen entered, according to a police report.

One of the gunmen walked to the back of the store toward one of the employees, who was stocking shelves, and told him, “This is a robbery,” North Little Rock police said.

After the employee turned around, the robber struck him in the head with the handgun, causing him to fall to the floor and lose consciousness, the report stated.

Sgt. Amy Cooper, a police spokeswoman, said the robber “continued to strike” the employee in the face and eventually took his wallet.

The employee was not seriously injured in the attack, but police said there was a “rather large pool of blood” on the floor where the employee had been lying, according to the report.

The other gunman stood at the front counter and ordered one of the employees to take cash out of the register, but the third employee ran out of the store through the emergency exit, causing an alarm to sound, police said. The alarm caused both gunmen to panic and run away before getting any of the store’s money, the report stated.

A surveillance video captured the men entering the store through the front doors and exiting through the same doors after the alarm was activated. One of the men was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and the other wore a navy or black hooded sweatshirt.

The report stated that both men were black, between the ages of 17 and 22, and wore dark face masks. One of the suspects appeared to be about 6 feet, 3 inches tall and up to 220 pounds while the other, the one who was near the register, was about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 160 pounds, according to police.