By By MARY-ALLISON LANCASTER – Managing Editor
A convenience store in the Damascus community was robbed at gunpoint Thursday afternoon. About an hour later, another store in Andalusia was robbed at gunpoint - and Escambia County Sheriff's officials are trying to determine if the two are connected.
According to Maj. Mike Murphy, a black male wearing camouflage and a hood entered The Country Store on Highway 29 in Damascus and demanded money from the clerk working.
The clerk complied and handed over the money, and the suspect fled out the door and got into a white Ford F150 pickup truck with tinted windows and an Alabama firefighter license plate.
The suspect then headed toward Covington County, Murphy said. Witnesses said they had seen the truck parked outside the store earlier but &#8220didn't think anything about it,” Murphy said.
Witnesses also said they saw two black females inside the truck after it left.
As investigators combed the area, Covington County officials reported after 3 p.m. that the manager of the TitleMax Title Pawn store, also on Highway 29, was robbed at gunpoint and shot at. The manager was not injured.
Reports in The Andalusia Star-News said an unidentified black male entered the stored, pointed a gun at the manager and demanded money.
The robber then fled on foot with an undetermined amount of cash. Search dogs were called to the scene and searched for more than an hour, but no suspect was located.
Officers from the Covington County Sheriff's Office, the Alabama State Troopers, the 22nd Circuit Judicial Drug Task Force and the Escambia County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene.
The suspect is described as a 6-foot black male of average build.
Anyone with information about the armed robbery should contact the Escambia County sheriff's office at 867-0304.