BALTIMORE — Police are investigating a robbery at a Royal Farms in Southeast Baltimore that ended with one of their employees being shot.
It happened last Saturday in the 5800 block of Eastern Avenue. Neighboring business owners were all devastated after learning an employee in their area was shot during that robbery.
Tony DeVille is one of those business owners who said now they’re working overtime to make sure their business isn’t the next target.
“We’re all armed legally just for that simple fact. We’ve been here for 13 years, what we have done, updated security, added two new sets of cameras inside and outside for our protection and for our clients protection,” DeVille said.
DeVille is the owner of DeVille INK that sits diagonal from the Royal Farms that was robbed at gun point.
He said he heard the terrible news of one of the Royal Farms employees being shot. Police said it happened just after 4:00 in the morning last Saturday where a 53-year-old woman was shot in the chest.
DeVille said this is why they go the extra mile to make sure their business has heavy surveillance.
“We aim them out to the sidewalks and to the streets so we can try and help the police as they come around looking for footage. There’s nothing around here to help them the police stations across there but it’s understaffed and there’s no other business open at 4 o’clock in the morning,” DeVille said.
Nicholas Keene is another man who lives in the area and said he was at the Royal Farms that morning and witnessed the alleged shooter running away from the store following that shooting.
“I saw the guy running, I didn’t know why he was running. He was trying to rob the store, but when the shot went off, when he shot somebody he ran because like there was money everywhere on the ground and everything. A coworker was trying to distract him and so she went to grab the money back and he just let the trigger go and it hit her in the right part of her chest,” Keene said.
Now they’re hoping this violence doesn’t run people away from the neighborhood.
“This is a great neighborhood, don’t let one thing as horrible as this stop you from coming in and patronizing the businesses on Eastern Avenue,” DeVille said.
The 53- year-old woman is now recovering after being shot in the chest, police however are asking anyone with information concerning this robbery to contact Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7 Lock UP.
