Clerk slain in second robbery in three weeks
Antioch teen was saving for college, mother says
By JEANNINE F. HUNTER
Staff Writer
An
18-year-old Antioch man, whose first day on the job featured a robbery,
died just three weeks later in another robbery while working Saturday
at GameXchange on Hickory Hollow Parkway in Antioch, police said.
Cole Richard was shot and killed in the incident shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday.
"He
has a very strong character and he liked the people who worked there
and he thought this was a one-time incident and this kind of thing
would probably not happen again," said his mother, Constance Higgins,
yestersday afternoon. "He was in the habit of making friends, not
making enemies."
A co-worker and a customer told police that two
armed men entered the game store Saturday evening after being spotted
earlier in a nearby parking lot. They were with a third man who drove a
dark, four-door car, which was spotted later near the store, said South
Precinct detective Mike Chastain of the Metro Police Department.
Police
said witnesses told them they were forced to lie down on the store
floor. The witnesses told police they heard one gunman demand money
from Richard, who stood closest to the cash register. They said Richard
wordlessly handed over the money before one
robber asked whether the store carried a new portable Playstation video
game system. Richard said it did not, and one of the gunmen shot him, the witnesses said.
Witnesses' names were not released because of concern for their safety as the investigation continues, Chastain said.
The
co-worker, whom police also did not name, retrieved a gun he had in the
store and ran after the robbers, who left in either a black or a maroon
car that had been parked in front of the nearby NTB Store, 5210 Hickory
Hollow Parkway.
The co-worker had a gun in the store because it
had been robbed June 25, Chastain said. In that incident, the co-worker
was the one who had handed over the store's money. Chastain said there
were a few similarities between the robberies, but witness descriptions
of the robbers differed.
"He was very responsible at work and he
was very courageous, too," Higgins said of her son. "He stood there and
did everything those terrible people told him to do and they shot him
anyway."
Richard had recently changed jobs and was working to
save money to attend Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., where he
planned to major in business management, his mother said. He had two
sisters and was the middle child. He had a girlfriend and was a
fun-loving young man, Higgins said.
"He was just your average teenager with ambitions and dreams," she said. "He was smiles all the time and he believed in God."
He attended Radnor Baptist Church and its Radnor Baptist Academy before he was home-schooled the last two years of high school.
Source
Antioch teen was saving for college, mother says
By JEANNINE F. HUNTER
Staff Writer
An
18-year-old Antioch man, whose first day on the job featured a robbery,
died just three weeks later in another robbery while working Saturday
at GameXchange on Hickory Hollow Parkway in Antioch, police said.
Cole Richard was shot and killed in the incident shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday.
"He
has a very strong character and he liked the people who worked there
and he thought this was a one-time incident and this kind of thing
would probably not happen again," said his mother, Constance Higgins,
yestersday afternoon. "He was in the habit of making friends, not
making enemies."
A co-worker and a customer told police that two
armed men entered the game store Saturday evening after being spotted
earlier in a nearby parking lot. They were with a third man who drove a
dark, four-door car, which was spotted later near the store, said South
Precinct detective Mike Chastain of the Metro Police Department.
Police
said witnesses told them they were forced to lie down on the store
floor. The witnesses told police they heard one gunman demand money
from Richard, who stood closest to the cash register. They said Richard
wordlessly handed over the money before one
robber asked whether the store carried a new portable Playstation video
game system. Richard said it did not, and one of the gunmen shot him, the witnesses said.
Witnesses' names were not released because of concern for their safety as the investigation continues, Chastain said.
The
co-worker, whom police also did not name, retrieved a gun he had in the
store and ran after the robbers, who left in either a black or a maroon
car that had been parked in front of the nearby NTB Store, 5210 Hickory
Hollow Parkway.
The co-worker had a gun in the store because it
had been robbed June 25, Chastain said. In that incident, the co-worker
was the one who had handed over the store's money. Chastain said there
were a few similarities between the robberies, but witness descriptions
of the robbers differed.
"He was very responsible at work and he
was very courageous, too," Higgins said of her son. "He stood there and
did everything those terrible people told him to do and they shot him
anyway."
Richard had recently changed jobs and was working to
save money to attend Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., where he
planned to major in business management, his mother said. He had two
sisters and was the middle child. He had a girlfriend and was a
fun-loving young man, Higgins said.
"He was just your average teenager with ambitions and dreams," she said. "He was smiles all the time and he believed in God."
He attended Radnor Baptist Church and its Radnor Baptist Academy before he was home-schooled the last two years of high school.
Source
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