GUNMAN FLEES BEFORE DEPUTIES ARRIVE.Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer Two employees of a Mervyn's store locked an armed robber into a loading dock area but he managed to escape before deputies arrived, sheriff's officials said. The two women employees were in the cashier's office of the Antelope Valley Mall The Antelope Valley Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in Palmdale, California. Opened in September, 1990, its buildings take up around 1 million square feet (90,000 m²). Its physical main building, parking lots, and ring road businesses encompass an area a bit less than 0. store shortly after the store closed at 10 p.m. Wednesday when a man who apparently had been hiding inside the store pointed a large revolver revolver: see small arms. revolver Pistol with a revolving cylinder that provides multishot action. Some early versions, known as pepperboxes, had several barrels, but as early as the 17th century pistols were being made with a revolving chamber to at them. ``The suspect jumped over the cashier's counter,'' said Deputy Kimberly Unland. ``He ordered one employee to lie on the floor and ordered the second employee to fill up (a) pillowcase pil·low·case n. A removable covering for a pillow. Also called pillowslip. pillowcase or pillowslip Noun a removable washable cover for a pillow Noun 1. , which she did.'' As the gunman started to leave, he asked the employees how to get out. ``They pointed to the direction of the loading deck,'' Unland said. ``Once they saw him leave, they locked the door behind him and ran back to the cashier's office and locked themselves in.'' The employees then dialed 911. Other employees who saw the man taking money from cash registers reported the crime to mall security officers, who cleared the remaining employees out of the mall - which closed two hours earlier - and kept watch on the stores' exits. Motion detectors A motion detector is a device that contains a physical mechanism or electronic sensor that quantifies motion that can be either integrated with or connected to other devices that alert the user of the presence of a moving object within the field of view. were set off inside the stock room, leading deputies to believe the man was still inside. Sheriff's Special Weapons and Tactics team members entered the store at 1:20 a.m. and freed the two women, whose names were not released. They searched the store for about four hours but found no robber, officials said. The suspect is described as an African-American man age 28 to 32, about 6-2 and 220 pounds, with shoulder length black hair, wearing a blue beanie bean·ie n. A small brimless cap. [Probably from bean, head.] beanie Noun Brit, Austral & NZ close-fitting woollen hat Noun type cap and sunglasses sunglasses A tinted pair of glasses used to ↓ light arriving at the eye, which are labeled according to the amount of UV light blocked; nonprescription glasses are classified according to use and amount of UV radiation blocked Sunglasses and dressed completely in black, including a black trench coat. |
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