Crying Clerk Foils Pleasant Hill Drugstore Robbery; Suspect Jailed
PLEASANT HILL (BCN) - A masked man armed with a knife attempted to rob a Pleasant Hill drugstore on Monday night but left empty-handed after a clerk began crying and ran away, police said.
At about 8:55 p.m., a man wearing a white mask, green baseball cap and black hooded sweatshirt entered a Walgreens at 721 Gregory Lane.
Brandishing a large knife, the man told the female clerk to stay quiet, but she began sobbing uncontrollably and ran away, police said.
The suspect, fled the business and was seen running east on Gregory Lane, according to police.
Officers found the suspect, later identified as Julian Marquez Shoats, 19, of Pleasant Hill, on Monti Circle, less than half a mile from the drugstore. Shoats was identified by a store employee as the would-be robber and was arrested.
Witness reports led police to a hedge where they found the knife, cap and sweatshirt, police said.
Shoats was booked into Contra Costa Jail for attempted robbery. He is being held on $50,000 bail.
