Staff report
Authorities are asking for the public’s help in identifying two people who reported being robbed Sunday morning in the parking lot of the Rushco/McDonald’s.
Around 2:05 a.m. Sunday, a man and woman reported being robbed at the business at 601 W. Jake Alexander Blvd.
The woman called 911 and reported the robbery, saying she’d been held at gunpoint and four men left the scene in a white Toyota Camry.
The woman gave officials a partial license plate number and suspect descriptions.
Before officers arrived, the people reporting the robbery left the store in a late model, black Ford Mustang.
A short time later, officers located a vehicle matching the description of the suspected robbers parked in front of an apartment at Civic Apartments at 715 Hall St.
A man who was inside an apartment ran out the back door. When he ran into two police officers and a sheriff’s deputy in front of the partment, he pulled a handgun and fired at the officers, police say. Officers returned fire, killing the man later identified as Alphonso Leroy Howard Simmons Jr., 20, of 801 Grace St.
The State Bureau of Investigations is investigating. Anyone with information about this man and woman should call the Salisbury Police at 704-638-5333 or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5249.