Armed Robber Targets Customers At Spyhouse Coffee
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's where so many of us find a jolt of caffeine and a moment of "me" time.
But for John Sugimura, his visit Saturday evening to the Spyhouse coffee shop at 24th and Nicollet Avenue shook him to his core.
"To not be emotional three days later, it's very frightening and it makes you so vulnerable," Sugimura said.
Imagine his fear when the gunman's pistol laser sight was trained squarely on his chest.
Recalls John, "He's like, give me your computer and he said something like the word 'gun.' I have a gun and I know how to use it. This is why you'll give it to me, something to make it compelling."
It was around 7:30 p.m. when his first victims--a man and his young daughter--were approached at gunpoint.
"They were playing games, how innocent is that?" Sugimura said.
The gunman next targeted a graduate student, wrestling away her Mac laptop. John was the third victim.
"I feel badly for the college student. She had a big project due on Wednesday and the whole thing was taken. She was devastated," Sugimura said.
One week earlier, across the street and up the same block, a clerk at the Metro PCS phone store was robbed at gunpoint. Surveillance video shows the man facing the camera. Police say they'll release the images to the public soon.
At this point, it appears the two incidents are only coincidental. There's no solid evidence linking the two crimes.
By the time the armed robber in Saturday's attack bolted out the Spyhouse door, he'd hit up two more victims.
"A gun with a red light pointing at your chest is pretty compelling," Sugimura said.
To victims like John, it was the loss of property made worse by the theft of innocence and peace.
Anyone with information on either crime is asked to call Minneapolis police.