Suspect robs store at gunpoint
A police manhunt continues for a gun-toting suspect believed to be responsible for a string of crimes Thursday night including an attempted carjacking at a store in Jefferson Township and a robbery at a store in Buffalo Township.
The unknown man threatened two people with a handgun but no one was injured, authorities said.
State and local police spent the night processing three crime scenes, interviewing witnesses, reviewing surveillance video and looking for the gunman, a white man between 20 and 30 years old, about 5 feet, 8 inches tall with a thin build.
Investigators had no immediate suspects.
The long night for law enforcement began at 6:39 p.m. when state police were called to the BP/Fueland store on Dinnerbell Road, across from Knoch High School, in Jefferson Township.
A 44-year-old Sarver woman told police she had driven to the store and used the automated teller machine. When she returned to her Jeep Patriot, police said, a man was inside.
“She was backing up when a guy reached around from the back seat,” said Trooper Adam Peth. “He put a gun to her rib area and told her to start driving or he was going to shoot.”
Defiant, the woman refused, put the vehicle in park and jumped out. Thinking quickly, she took the vehicle's keys with her before leaving — a move that earned praise from police.
“She seemed pretty worked up,” Peth said of the woman. “She was very scared.”Just minutes after getting there, troopers got another call, at 6:50 p.m., for a reported theft of a vehicle — a 1997 Jeep Cherokee — from a mobile home park on Driftwood Drive in Jefferson Township.The black Jeep was in a driveway at the trailer behind the Fueland store when it was stolen. The theft, police said, was easy.“(The owner) had left it running to get warmed up,” Peth said.Minutes later, the BP/Fueland store on Ekastown Road in Buffalo Township was robbed at gunpoint, police said.Buffalo Township police were called about 8 p.m. and learned that a man wearing a dark ski mask, dark gloves and other dark clothing had walked into the store brandishing a handgun.The suspect approached at least one of two clerks working and demanded money from the store's cash register and safe, police said. The man left with an undisclosed amount of money. He apparently used the stolen Jeep as his getaway vehicle.The robberies at both stores were captured on store surveillance video, authorities said.Police said they recovered the Jeep at the park and ride on Route 356 in Buffalo Township about 9 p.m. Inside was clothing, possibly worn and discarded by the suspect.Investigators later towed the Jeep to the barracks to be processed for any evidence, including the suspects fingerprints or blood.The would-be carjacking victim's Jeep also is being scoured for any evidence that could help the investigation, Peth said.
