A Minter City store had illegal gambling machines in the back, and that might have precipitated an armed robbery there, Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks said this morning.
The Leflore County Sheriff’s Department is asking the public for help in apprehending multiple suspects wanted in connection with the Sept. 11 robbery of Sanders Grocery in Minter City.
“I think they might have targeted that store. They probably thought that the little store had a lot of money,” he said.
On Sept. 11, two men, armed with handguns and wearing ski masks, entered the store around 8:30 p.m. Shots were fired, but no one was wounded.
According to the incident report, one of the men demanded that the clerk open the register. A money bag was also taken from a nearby filing cabinet.
The sheriff said the clerk was herded into a back room, where the gaming machines were. Once there, she was bound with duct tape, as were four customers who were using the machines.
The victims were robbed of their wallets, but the robbers didn’t take any money from the gaming machines, the sheriff said. The clerk also reported that the robbers took a pistol and a laptop computer.
Some of the evidence was recovered a short time later in a discarded backpack in a nearby corn field, the sheriff said.
Banks said after investigators left the scene on the night of the robbery, the store’s owner removed the gaming machines from the premises.
Asked if that interfered with an active crime scene, Banks responded, “We were more or less through. I was more interested in catching the robbers.”
The sheriff did advise the store’s owner, Johnny Sanders, not to bring the machines back.
Sanders could not be reached for comment this morning.
Asked if Sanders might face charges for the machines, Banks replied, “We’ll look at that down the road.”
The sheriff said the first priority is catching the robbers.
The robbery suspects, both black males — one described as tall and skinny and the other short with a medium build – were wearing blue jeans and dark-colored shirts. At least two more men are believed to have been waiting outside at the time of robbery.
For more information, call Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Crime Stoppers Inc. at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department at 453-5141. Callers may remain anonymous, and a cash reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
