PORTLAND, Ore. — The customers and clerk at a Northeast Portland convenience store successfully thwarted an armed robbery on Sunday, according to police — taking the suspect's gun and subduing him until officers arrived.
According to the Portland Police Bureau, officers responded just before 1 a.m. early Sunday morning to the 7-Eleven at Northeast 82nd and Sandy to reports of a robbery.
"The initial call said that the clerk and customers were fighting with the suspect inside the store and a shot had been fired," the agency said.
Officers arrived to find the robbery suspect bleeding from the face. Two customers had also been injured in the struggle. The suspect's gun was secured by the store clerk.
"I was here that morning and watched the guy," a witness told KGW. "He pulled something out of his waistband, and obviously it was a gun and everyone was just looking around — and everybody jumped when it was time."
PPB's initial investigation found that the suspect entered the store, pulled out a revolver and announced that he was going to rob the store and the customers.
Two of the customers decided to fight instead, going for the gun and pinning the suspect to the ground. During the struggle, the revolver went off. No one was hit by the stray round, Portland police said.
Members of PPB's Major Crimes Unit and forensic technicians responded to the scene, with assistance from traffic officers, K-9 units and air support.
The suspect, identified by PPB as 40-year-old Daniel Israel Jones of Portland, was taken to a hospital for injuries he'd received in the struggle. He was later released from the hospital and interviewed by detectives before being booked into jail.
In addition to the attempted robbery on Sunday, Jones has been charged in connection with a July 1 robbery at another 7-Eleven location at Southeast 92nd and Stark. According to court documents, he robbed the store clerk twice, taking beer, cigarettes, and around $300 in cash. He faces four counts of first-degree robbery, four counts of unlawful use of a weapon, four counts of menacing and a charge for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
As of Tuesday night, he remains booked in the Multnomah County Detention Center.
"I guess he’s where he is supposed to be, behind bars," said the witness. "That's somebody who deserves a little bit of detention, so he can think about what he did."
The tarnished, gripless revolver used at the crime scene was reported stolen out of Washington back in 1996, Portland police said.
Anyone with information about any of these robberies is asked to email crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov. Reference case number 23-173291 for the July 2 robbery and 23-173203 for the July 1 robbery.