Md. Police Look Into Death Inside Clothing Shop
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) -- Two women employees of an upscale athletic apparel store were attacked and one was killed during a robbery attempt in a busy shopping district in this suburban Washington neighborhood, police said Saturday.
The attack inside the Lululemon Athletica shop occurred Friday night when two masked men in gloves entered, said Capt. Paul Starks, a Montgomery County police spokesman. The women, who were in their late 20s or early 30s, were found toward the back of the store Saturday morning before it was scheduled to open.
No one was in custody as of Saturday afternoon.
The woman who survived the attack was sexually assaulted and speaking with detectives at the hospital, where she was expected to recover, police said. Starks would not discuss details of the attack or say whether any money was taken.
The slain woman's name was not immediately released. The Associated Press generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
The women were found after another employee arrived to open the store and noticed things were out of place, then asked a passer-by for help.
Police cordoned off the shop, which sells athletic clothing and yoga apparel, with yellow tape and placed brown paper in the windows to block the view inside.
The store is located next to an Apple shop along a major commercial thoroughfare that also includes a Barnes & Noble, a salon and spa and multiple restaurants. Police were hopeful someone out Friday night may have heard or seen something.
Shoppers and passers-by slowed as they walked near the shop, asking each other for information and expressing shock that a violent crime had occurred in an otherwise safe neighborhood.
Brittany Jacoby, 23, who said employees from Lululemon frequently eat at the restaurant across the street where she works, said she typically doesn't worry leaving work late at night but that the attack has given her a heightened sense of awareness.
"We just assume it's safe because it's Bethesda," she said. "This is crazy that this could happen here of all places."
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
