By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
LANDIS ó Four people have been charged with beating and robbing a Landis store clerk.
The Landis Police Department charged the four with common law robbery on Friday. One is a juvenile whose name was not released.
The department received a tip that led police to later identify Xavier Parks,16, as the man who tried to buy cigars at Krish Express Exxon, 315 S. Main St., on May 9.
The clerk, Sheryas Patel, had refused to sell Parks the cigars around 8:15 p.m. that evening when he could not provide identification showing he was old enough to buy tobacco products.
Police say Parks returned later that night with three others and robbed Patel, who had closed the store but was making a call on his cell phone in the store’s parking lot, a department release said.
Patel was struck in the face and head and knocked to the ground.
One suspect demanded Patel’s wallet, which he gave. It contained $200. The suspects left on foot. Parks was charged with one count of common law robbery. He was placed in the Rowan County Detention Center under a $10,000 secured bond. He has since been released.
Two others, Derrion Crawford and DaMonte Harper, both 16, were also charged.
Harper was charged with one count of common law robbery and has since been released on $10,000 bond.
Crawford was charged with one count of common law robbery, two counts of felony possession of stolen property, one count of simple possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He remains in the county jail under $75,000 secured bond.
Police searched Crawford’s residence, 707 S. Valley St., on Friday, and found two wallets recently stolen, one belonging to Patel. The second belonged to Arkim Wallace, a pizza delivery driver who was robbed on South Highland Avenue in early April.