GATES, NC -- Paramedics took two people to the hospital following the armed robbery of Family Foods on Highway 37 Tuesday night.
Gates County Sheriff Edward Webb tells 13News calls about the crime started coming at 7:45 p.m. Deputies got to the supermarket within minutes and saw people on the floor inside the store. Initially, they thought the robbers still were there and treated it as a hostage situation. The two robbers, in fact, already had left.
Webb says they entered the store through a back door. A worker had it open as he cleared out boxes from the stock room. The robbers, one armed with a long gun and one armed with a handgun, forced the worker to the ground. They went into the supermarket and started shooting, ordering people to the floor. There at least a dozen there. No one was hit by the gunfire.
One gunman forced a worker to empty the registers. The other, forced an employee to get money out of the safe. They left through the door they used to enter the store.
One person was hurt when a robber whacked her in the back of her head with his gun, splitting it open. She went to the hospital for treatment which included getting stitches. A second person started having trouble breathing, the result of a severe panic attack. Medics flew her to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
Sheriff Webb says the robbers were dressed all in black with masks covering their faces. He says his office has good reason to believe they were outside the store while it still was daylight. Deputies are getting conflicting information about how the gunmen left. Some witnesses have them running off on foot. Other people say they saw a red car speed out of the area, while other witnesses explain they saw a white pick-up drive off.
North Carolina Highway Patrol, Aulander Police, and Hertford County Sheriff's Office provided assistance Tuesday night. Sheriff Webb says his office also contacted Suffolk and Franklin so that their respective police departments knew what happened.
Anyone with information can call Gates County Sheriff's Office at 252-357-0210 or contact the E9-1-1 Center.
