Bedford Township store clerk beaten during robbery

1/13/2005

TEMPERANCE - Authorities are looking for a suspect in the armed robbery of a Bedford Township convenience store yesterday morning in which the store's clerk was injured.

The suspect entered Ella's Party Store, 6517 South Telegraph Road, at 10:17 a.m. and, brandishing a handgun, he jumped over the counter and struck the clerk, Laljibhai Patel, 62, of Erie, in the head several times with the gun, Monroe County sheriff's deputies said. The suspect ordered Mr. Patel to empty the cash register and then put him in the store's back room before fleeing in an unknown direction in a blue or gray vehicle, deputies said.

Mr. Patel was treated in St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center for head lacerations, deputies said.

The suspect was described as a black male about 6 feet, 2 inches tall with a medium build. He was wearing a blue coat with a blue sweatshirt underneath. The sweatshirt's hood was pulled over the suspect's head, and he wore a blue bandana beneath the hood.