KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. — A clerk at a Kings Mountain shop told Channel 9 she doesn’t know how she escaped without being shot during an armed robbery Wednesday afternoon.
The clerk was cut, but not seriously wounded, at the Smoke Shop on York Road where she said three people were shot.
She said the 20-minute robbery felt more like two hours.
[READ MORE: Police arrest suspect accused of shooting, stabbing victims in Kings Mountain robbery]
Investigators said they arrested Rickey Smith Jr. Thursday afternoon after a chase that ended in a crash on Lavender Road in Grover.
The clerk, who didn’t want to be identified, said Smith tried to rob her by handing her a note.
"I told him, ‘You got to be kidding me,’” she said.
(Rickey Smith Jr.)
The clerk said Smith quickly ran behind the counter, forced her to the ground and pulled a knife.
"He was standing above me and I'm on the floor and he had it pressed, coming down at me,” she said.
The clerk said that’s when the store’s owner walked in, and Smith attacked her.
"Dragged her and the knife was at her throat,” the clerk said.
The clerk said she then grabbed the owner's gun from behind the counter, and three other people, relatives of the owner, rushed in.
"(Smith) is stabbing and going at all of them over there,” the clerk said.
The clerk said she couldn't get a clear shot and Smith put the knife to the owner's neck.
"Then he told me, if I didn't put the gun down he was killing her,” she said.
The clerk reluctantly put the gun down and Smith grabbed it and fired shots.
"He just starts firing, shooting at everybody and everything,” the clerk said.
Two shots hit the owner. The owner's nephew was shot as he ran and the owner's brother was shot in the chest.
The clerk said Smith then saw himself in a security camera monitor and yanked it down, and the monitor hit her on the head.
"I guess he thought I was done for,” the clerk said. “He started grabbing cameras and pulling them out of the wall."
One security captured a clear image of Smith that ultimately led to his arrest.
Reporter Ken Lemon asked Smith why he did it.
"Shut up,” Smith responded.
The clerk said the owner and her brother are in the hospital in critical, but stable condition, and the owner’s nephew is recovering.
Smith is in jail under a $400,000 bond for four counts of attempted murder and other charges.
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