By Shavonne Potts
Salisbury Post
The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office says a suspect in the Monday night robbery of an Exxon station may be the same man who robbed the Gold Hill Market in March. Authorities say the suspect’s description and actions match those in the first crime.
Two employees were in the Exxon convenience store on Long Ferry Road near Interstate 85 around 8:30 Monday night when a man came in and approached the counter with a pack of chewing gum.
“He threw a dollar on the counter and pulled out a small silver revolver handgun,” said Capt. John Sifford of the Rowan Sheriff’s Office.
The man then went behind the counter, grabbed the store’s money bag and took the cash out of it.
The suspect is described as a black man about 6-foot-5 with a goatee and shoulder-length hair with braided pigtails.
After robbing the store, the man got into a silver or gray Jeep Cherokee and headed toward I-85.
In the Gold Hill robbery, a man with a similar description went inside and bought a cookie, then returned to the store moments later and robbed it. He too got into a gray Jeep Cherokee. In that incident, witnesses said a woman was driving.
A white man earlier reported to be a suspect in Monday’s robbery has not been positively identified as being involved.
Authorities ask anyone with information about the robberies to contact the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office at 704-216-8700.
Contact Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253 or spotts@salisburypost.com.