CVS customer faced down armed robbers
Tampa, Florida — A dangerous armed robber is on the run and Tampa police hope evidence left behind inside the Hyde Park CVS will help hunt him down.
Officers shot his alleged partner-in-crime and took Tony Harrison into custody.
The only customer inside the store at the time talks with 10 News about his terrifying escape. He doesn’t want to be identified, because one of the two armed robbers who terrorized him and 4 employees hasn’t been caught.
One armed robbery suspect on the loose
Second suspect sought in CVS robbery
He says endured the longest 7 seconds of terror inside the CVS on Wednesday morning faced with an armed robber’s gun, yet when he saw the chance to escape and get help he didn’t hesitate.
“Thank God, I get to live,” says the customer. He’d been shopping at the CVS store on South Howard Avenue just after 1 a.m., when police say the gunmen stormed the store.
“The suspects were demanding money at gunpoint, very violently dragging the victims from the store around getting them to open registers,” says Andrea Davis, spokeswoman for Tampa police.
Then, the customer says the robbers tried to corral everyone to the back of the store at gunpoint. “I think I was with him for exactly 7 seconds. He tried to move me, and he heard a noise and he went to check the noise. The manager was yelling, and he ran to see what was going on,” says the customer. The robbers got distracted, and the customer saw that window of opportunity to run out the front door.
“I took off and first thing I did from outside, like when I was getting in my car was to call 911 and make sure they were there. Thank God everybody’s safe,” the customer says.
When a retired TPD officer hired to patrol Hyde Park along with Officer Ryan Jacques arrived, they say accused robber Harrison came out the front door and refused to get down on the ground. Both officers opened fire hitting and wounding Harrison. TPD tells 10 News that Harrison had to have surgery, but is expected to survive.
Investigators believe forensic evidence from the store will lead them to the second robber.
The terrified customer hopes the suspect is caught soon. When 10 News asked if this was the scariest 7 seconds of his life, the customer says, “Very much so, you know? It’s actually an experience that I don’t really like to happen again.”
Police say they’ll step up patrols in Hyde Park on Wednesday night to help ease neighbors’ fears until the second robber is caught.
10 News is digging deeper into the number of robberies in the area. Tampa police pulled the numbers and say there have been only 5 robberies in that area of South Tampa over the last year. Most of the robberies appeared to happen at businesses. The same CVS was robbed just 5 months ago.
CVS released this statement: “We are grateful no one was hurt and for the quick response by the police. We are cooperating with police in their investigation and as it is on-going will defer to them regarding any additional comments.”
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