Shop worker shot in $1,000 armed robbery

THREE masked men armed with guns raided Cooland Supermarket in Bulawayo's Nkulumane 12 suburb and allegedly shot one employee in the leg before getting away with more than $1 000.

The incident occurred at around 6PM on Saturday.

A total of $1 155 was allegedly stolen from an ecocash counter and the armed robbers also took an undisclosed amount of money from other supermarket tills as well as three cellphones.

The suspects, who were wearing blue masks, appeared at the Cooland supermarket's back entrance when the shop's employees were knocking off.

One of them allegedly opened fire at the security guard but missed and the bullet hit one of the employees, Miss Kathleen Dube, on the ankle.

Miss Dube was later taken to United Bulawayo Hospitals and her condition could not be established immediately yesterday.

A police source who preferred anonymity said the armed robbers struck at around 6PM when employees were heading home.  "The robbers, who were putting on blue masks, appeared at the back gate of Cooland Supermarket as 13 employees were coming out. One of the robbers pointed a pistol towards the guard and fired one shot but missed and hit Kathleen Dube who was following behind him on the right ankle," said the police source.

"The robber who was armed force-marched everyone back into the premises while one of them stood guard at the gate and the other one stood guard in the corridor. Whilst inside, the robber ordered everyone to lie down and grabbed one of the cashiers whom she force-marched to the tills."

The police source said one of the cashiers was ordered to direct one of the robbers around the supermarket.

"He demanded more cash so the cashier led him to an ecocash counter where she handed him a cardboard box containing $1 155, a nokia cellphone, Mobicel cellphone and a Samsung cellphone.

"One of the employees indicated that the robber with the pistol was putting on a black trousers, khakhi jacket and white all-star tennis shoes and the three wore blue masks to cover their faces," said the source.

He said the employees quickly alerted Nkulumane police soon after the armed robbers had escaped through the back door.

Vendors who were outside Cooland Supermarket at the time of the robbery yesterday told The Chronicle that they did not see the armed robbers.

They only realised that a robbery had taken place when an ambulance arrived at the scene at around 7PM.