Whole Foods robber shot cashier in face when he failed to open register, police say

[IronLionZion]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/whole-foods-robber-shot-cashier-in-face-when-he-failed-to-open-register-police-say/2018/12/03/6466ac4a-f725-11e8-863c-9e2f864d47e7_story.html?utm_term=.5b8d1df0adf6



He went to the customer service counter at the Whole Foods first, put a gun to the clerk’s side and demanded money. Police said she apparently took too long, and he went to Register 4.

“Give me the money or I will shoot you. Open the drawer,” the man told the cashier, according to police. They said the assailant was holding a handgun in his right hand, his finger on the trigger.

It was 10:45 a.m. Sunday at Sixth and H streets, a gentrifying strip of Northeast Washington near Union Station. The store was busy. Police said the cashier at Register 4 tried to open the drawer but failed, and the gunman shot him in the chest.

The two fought over the weapon and the cashier was shot again, police said, this time in the mouth. The cashier broke free and ran as police said the gunman fired three more times, sending frightened shoppers scattering for cover and police racing to the store.

The cashier, reached by phone at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, said he did not want to talk, one reason being his mouth was swollen. A hospital spokeswoman said that he was being released Monday and that he and his family have asked for privacy.

The harrowing account of what happened inside the Whole Foods comes from police documents describing the charge filed against Michael Victor Whatley Jr., who was arrested Sunday night in his Southeast Washington apartment, where authorities said he was found hiding in a closet next to a Russian-made ATI Saiga assault rifle made by Kalashnikov and loaded with 22 bullets.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. I go to the Giant at Third Street and H Street NE

every now and then. It's three blocks west of the Whole Foods. I didn't know that there was a Whole Foods there until I saw this thread.

[IronLionZion]

2. It's a pretty decent whole foods, been open a year or 2

the parking garage gets crowded, like all whole foods.

I only started going there because of Amazon Prime, their brilliant marketing works on me. It's made it less of a "whole paycheck" and more competitive with normal grocery store prices.