Police are searching for armed robbers who have targeted three different stores in Columbia in the past month.
"They don't get hardly any cash from these stores, but they're putting so many people's lives at risk including their own," Lt. Joey Gideon of the Columbia Police Department said.
In each instance the robbers displayed what appeared to be guns, and in two of those three instances, the robbers inflicted violence on store clerks.
"Even though the clerk is being exceptionally compliant with the demands of the offenders, the offenders still take the time to physically assault the clerk and still cause him injury," Gideon explained.
Police believe the robberies may be related due to the clothing the robbers were wearing and the mannerisms they exhibited.
Police are now hoping the public can help identify these criminals before someone is seriously hurt or even killed, whether that be a store clerk, a customer, or the robbers themselves.
"I think that somebody knows who's doing this," Gideon said. "We have to put a stop to these robberies.
The first in these strings of robbery happened on Sunday, November 13th, at Columbia Discount Tobacco and Beer located at 500 North High Street. The second took place on Tuesday, November 29th, at Spur Market located at 1000 Carmack Boulevard. The most recent robbery happened on Sunday, December 4th, at the Sky Mart located at 101 Santa Fe Pike.
If you have any information, or you recognize the voices in the surveillance video, you should call police.
