Clerk recalls robbery, struggle with gunman

Rock Hill, SC (USA) -- More than 48 hours after a weekend robbery, Randy Nunoo still can’t sleep. Instead, his mind races.

A man held a gun in his face at a Rock Hill convenience store during the weekend robbery.

Around 10:30 p.m. Friday, Nunoo put some money in a store safe at Sunoco Express Mart at 1754 Saluda Road when he noticed a $20 bill was torn.

“I went into the office to find the tape,” Nunoo said when reached Monday. “All of a sudden, somebody put a gun in my face and said, ‘I’m going to kill you.’”

According to a police witness statement, Nunoo recognized the voice of the masked gunman, who had previously been banned from the store for shoplifting. The gunman wore a black ski mask and black cloth gloves and was armed with a sawed-off rifle, police said.

“I quickly touched the gun just to push it away from my face, and I was pushing him out of the office,” Nunoo said. “Then he fired twice, right by my ear.”

Nunoo, a father of six, including a son who lives in Nunoo’s native Africa, grabbed the rifle.

“We were struggling,” he recalled. “We fell over the display in the store. He kept firing. All the glass in the doors and two windows were busted.”

During the struggle, the triggerman bit Nunoo’s arm.

“I was able to pull my hand away and elbow his face,” Nunoo said. “His mask came off. I saw him. I asked him, ‘Man, why you want to kill me?’ He said, ‘Okay, I won’t kill you. Just give me the money.’”

The pair continued to struggle near the store door, Nunoo said.

“I pulled him outside, hoping someone would see me and come help,” he said. “I told him, ‘I will show you my African powers,’ and I pulled the gun out of his hand. He started running.”

According to police, the man ran behind the store.

Nunoo, who received a cut on his right fist and bruising from the struggle, took the rifle back in the store and noticed the $20 bill was on the counter.

Then he called the police and his wife. As he answered their questions, Nunoo pondered a question that remains unanswered.

“Why did he want to kill me?” he asked. “What did I do wrong? I’m just a person serving the community and trying to do my job.”

Early Saturday morning, police charged 18-year-old Octavius Lanard Jones of 1775 Cedar Post Lane with armed robbery with a deadly weapon, assault and battery with intent to kill and possession of a weapon during a violent crime in connection to Saturday’s robbery at the store.

Later that day, a judge set Jones’ bond at $205,000, according to the York County Sheriff’s Office Web site.

The next day, a grateful Nunoo tried to pick up the pieces of his life as he got his children ready Sunday.

“We went to church to praise God and thank Him that I’m still alive,” he said.

And he has plans for the abandoned $20.

“I’m going to put it in a frame and keep it,” he said.

Nunoo is slated to return to work today, but that doesn’t sit well with his wife, Christy Johnson.

“I don’t want him to go back there,” she said. “I’m scared for him to go back there.”

Jones remains in custody today at York County Detention Center in York.