A masked man with a gun repeatedly pistol-whips a clerk while rifling the register for money in a store security video shot Sunday night in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.
Then the clerk, bleeding from a scalp wound, reaches into a drawer and snatches out a pistol, the video shows.
The two men struggle, with the robber pointing his pistol at the clerk’s head, before the gunman bolts from the convenience store, accompanied by a masked accomplice, the video shows.
At some point during the fight, however, the clerk shot the first robber, who collapsed and died a block from Kam’s Market in Bay Point, said store owner Kamal Sandhu, KTVU reported.
Sandhu said the robber had shot first, pointing out bullet holes in the ceiling and a display case, according to the station.
In a post to Twitter, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department says only that it’s investigating the incident and will release more information later.
One robber confronted clerk Mark Kasprowicz, a military veteran, behind the counter while the second held the store manager at gunpoint in the back in the 11 p.m. crime, KNTV says.
“After I realized that everything was real, having a big handgun pointed at you, there’s only one thing that you worry about: your own life,” Kasprowicz said, according to the station.
After bashing Kasprowicz to the floor with his pistol, the robber rifles through the register, snatching bills and putting them in a box, the video shows.
Kasprowicz tries several times to get up but the gunman knocks him down again before the clerk retrieves a pistol from a drawer, the video shows.
“He was pretty brave,” Sandhu said, KRON reported. “He fought the guy first, tried to take away his gun, then pulled his gun. There was a struggle there, but it was heroic. But it was sad the other guy got killed.”
The second gunman, who can be seen in the video also fleeing the store, remains at large, KGO reported.
Kasprowicz, shown leaning over the counter cradling his head after the incident while another employee runs after the men, went to a hospital but is expected to recover, KNTV reported.
Bay Point, formerly known as West Pittsburg, is a city in the East Bay on the south shore of Suisun Bay.
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