VIDEO: Clerk Assaulted During BP Station Robbery

Salem Police charged two local men in connection with a Friday night robbery at the BP gas station on Lowell Road in which a store clerk was assaulted.  

Zachary Pintal, 19, of Salem, faces charges of robbery, simple assault and receiving stolen property while Brett Kearley, 20, of Salem, was charged with being an accomplice to robbery and receiving stolen property.

Police responded to the gas station at 10:37 p.m. Friday for a reported robbery. Police learned from the store clerk two white males in their late teens or early 20s had come into the store and walked around the aisles.

The clerk was dealing with another customer and said he eventually observed one of the male subjects, Pintal, walk around the register counter.

Police said the clerk told the male to back away and walked toward him. At that point, police said the male "punched the store clerk in the head and a scuffle ensued."

The clerk said the male reached under the counter and stole an unknown amount of cigarette and tobacco products and the two males left the store together.

Another witness said the men drove away in an older-model Volkswagen convertible with New Hampshire license plates, heading east on Lowell Road.

Police said a patrol officer located a vehicle matching the description in a parking lot near apartments off Cluff Crossing Road. A detective subsequently set up surveillance on the vehicle and put together a photo lineup using the registered owner of the vehicle.

Upon receiving positive identification of the suspect, detectives set up surveillance on the apartment building where the owner was known to be living while warrants were being applied for.

The male suspect and his accomplice were seen exiting the building and detectives moved in and arrested them without incident at 11:48 a.m. Saturday.

Police said both Pintal and Kearley refused bail and were held pending arraignment this morning in the 10th Circuit Court of Salem.