Concord Gas Station Reports Attempted Robbery, Nashua Man Is Arrested

CONCORD, NH — A man from Nashua was arrested on Wednesday after being accused of attempting to rob a clerk at a Concord Heights gas station and the fleeing the scene.

Just before 4:30 p.m., police began receiving calls and alarms from the Shell gas station at 333 Loudon Road. Dispatch sent officers reporting the first call, from a woman, disconnected, but they heard her say she thought she was going to get mugged. A second call came in and said the store was being robbed. Two silent panic alarms were also activated, a dispatcher said.

Half a dozen officers were sent to the gas station, approaching the scene cautiously, not knowing if the suspect was still inside. The first arriving officer said there did not seem to be anything unusual going on at the store.

A call was made to see if it was clear and the clerk came out to speak to officers. The clerk said a white man dressed in black and carrying a backpack with scruffy facial hair demanded money from the clerk.

“He approached the clerk and told her to give him the money in the store,” an officer told other officers. “He told her twice; he said he was going to ‘mess her up’ if she didn’t do it. He walked behind the counter, she hit the alarm, and he left, heading toward Walmart.”

Another person began following the suspect while a manager was requested to access surveillance footage of the suspect. Another witness also told police she saw the suspect walk behind Walmart across the street from the gas station.

Police began searching the area along with Merrimack County Sheriff’s Department deputies and New Hampshire State Police troopers. They checked several stores, parking lots, streets, and homeless camps in the areas of Loudon Road, D’Amante Drive, and Sheep Davis Road, as well as Old Loudon Road and Josiah Bartlett Road, but did not find the suspect.

Troopers also searched Interstate 393 after receiving a call about a pedestrian on the highway who appeared to match the description of the suspect, but they were not found.

Around 5 p.m., the person who was following the suspect told police he was walking along the sidewalk on Loudon Road. The suspect was spotted outside Aldi and police approached him.

Officers checked info on the man, and dispatch said he was in his early 20s and from Nashua. A dispatcher said the man was involved in an accident in Concord earlier in the day.

Officers questioned the suspect, off and on, during the next 30 minutes. At one point, one officer told others the suspect confirmed he was at the store but was just “messing around with the clerk.” Around 5:30 p.m., he was arrested.

Concord NH Patch will update this post when more information becomes available.

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