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CVS Clerk Shot By Masked Robber

Surveillance image

The robber, wearing a Halloween mask with white hair on the top, walked into the store at 11212 N. Dale Mabry Highway about 12:37 a.m. and shot the clerk twice before grabbing cash from the register.

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By NATALIE SHEPHERD

News Channel 8

Published: November 29, 2008

Updated: 11/29/2008 08:43 pm

TAMPA - A man in a clown mask shot a 27-year-old store clerk while robbing a CVS drugstore early Saturday morning, and the company and Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay each are offering a $5,000 reward for the gunman's capture.

The robber, wearing a Halloween mask with white hair on the top, walked into the store at 11212 N. Dale Mabry Highway about 12:37 a.m. and fired a single shot from a handgun into the ceiling, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.

There were about six to eight customers in the store at the time.

As the clerk opened the register to comply with the robber, the robber shot him twice, then grabbed cash from the register and ran, the sheriff's office said.

Investigators did not release the name of the 27-year-old clerk, who was shot in the chest and the thigh. The sheriff's office said he is in critical condition at St. Joseph's Hospital.

Investigators described the robber as a black man about 5 feet 8 inches tall with a thin build, weighing about 160 pounds and wearing black clothing and gloves.

The fact that the robber fired a shot into the ceiling may indicate he has experience, said Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesman J. D. Callaway. Firing the shot, said Callaway, is a way of controlling the situation.

This robbery does not appear to be connected to any others, Callaway said, and this is the first robbery at this location.

CVS officials say they are cooperating with investigators.

"The safety and well-being of our customers and employees is our highest priority," the company said in a written release. "Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleague and his family that he makes a full and speedy recovery. We have made counseling services available to his co-workers."

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the sheriff's office at (813) 247-8200 or Crime Stoppers tip line toll-free at 1-800-873-TIPS.

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