Holdup year's third for discount store
A discount store in south Little Rock was robbed for the third time this year Monday night, police said.
According to a police report, the robber entered the Family Dollar at 5200 65th St. a little after 9:40 p.m. He pointed a gun at the employee behind the main counter and asked, "Where is it at?" the report said. He then jumped over the counter and opened the unlocked safe, taking an unknown amount of cash from inside it.
The robber, described as a white man wearing an orange mask over his face, ran from the store, heading west on 65th Street, the report said. Police looked for him in the area but were unsuccessful.
The robber was further described as a 19- to 20-year-old, standing 5 feet 6 inches and weighing 160 pounds, with a scar next to his left eye, police said.
The crime marked the 10th time since June 2013 that the Family Dollar was robbed, according to Arkansas Online's Little Rock crime map. A robbery was reported in May of this year, and two men held up the store at gunpoint Sept. 29.
In break-in, forklifts likely taken for spin
An unknown number of people broke into a Little Rock building and possibly rode two forklifts before stealing the keys and nothing else, according to the Little Rock Police Department.
Officer Oscar Gomez arrived at 7400 Scott Hamilton Drive at 8:04 a.m. Monday after an employee of Collection Clarksville said someone broke in over the weekend, according to a police report.
The employee told police that the keys to two forklifts were missing and that two doors on the south side of the building do not lock.
Police observed tire marks on the floor "where it appears the suspects may have rode the forklifts" before swiping the keys, Gomez wrote in the report.
The make, model and serial number of the two forklifts were noted in case the people return to steal the machines, Gomez wrote.
No suspect was identified on the report.
Has cancer, robber tells LR store clerk
A Little Rock convenience store clerk was told by an armed robber demanding money early Monday that he had recently been diagnosed with cancer, police say.
"I don't want to do this, but open the drawer," the robber reportedly told the 44-year-old employee around 4:20 a.m. at the Valero at 12001 Colonel Glenn Road as he brandished a black, semi-automatic handgun.
According to a police report, two robbers, described as black men between 40 and 50 years old, were present at the time.
"You don't need to do this," the clerk told one robber before the robber replied, "Open the register or I'll shoot you."
The clerk at that point opened the register and gave the robber about $90 before a second demand was made for a pack of Newport cigarettes, police said.
The report states that the robbers then left in a green pickup and traveled west on Colonel Glenn Road.
One robber was described in the report as standing 5 feet 8 inches and weighing 190 pounds. He was wearing a dark-colored baseball cap, white and brown striped shirt and brown shorts, authorities said.
A physical description was not available for the second robber.
Homeless man shot in wrist, belly in LR
Officers found a homeless man bearing gunshot wounds near the doorway of a Starbucks on Monday night, according to the Little Rock Police Department.
Police were sent to the Interstate 630 bridge over Broadway after learning a shooting had just occurred, according to a report. Police were told a white man, later identified as 49-year-old James Anderson, walked across the bridge and lay down at the entrance of the Starbucks at 917 S. Broadway around 8:05 p.m.
Police found Anderson suffering from wounds in his left wrist and lower abdomen as a result of being shot by an unknown person, the report said.
A witness told police she saw a vehicle that might have been involved in the shooting, but could not provide any descriptive details.
Information for Police Beat was contributed by reporters Austin Cannon, Emma Pettit and Brandon Riddle of Arkansas Online.
Metro on 10/19/2016