Update: St. Paul police cite multiple calls in delayed response time

Four men came into a micro-market in St. Paul’s Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood, beat and pistol-whipped its two employees, and made off with cash and cigarettes, police say.

The robbery took place Tuesday afternoon at Walk-In Grocery at 841 E. Seventh St., after one of the men walked in and tried to buy cigarettes with a phony $20 bill, police said.

One of the two employees in the store saw that the bill was phony, and the suspect pulled out a handgun. Three more men entered the store, forced the two employees to sit in the center of the store, and proceeded to beat them in the face and head.

The suspects took cash, cigarettes and the employees’ cellphones, as well as video footage from the store’s surveillance cameras. They ran off before getting into a Dodge Journey SUV nearby and driving away.

According to police records, a 911 call was placed at 2:54 p.m. from a third party reporting a robbery at the store. The caller noted that the robbery had taken place about an hour before, and said medics weren’t needed.

An officer who happened to be driving by the store at 5:26 p.m. was flagged down by the owner, who was waving his hands in the street.

According to a police report, the owner said his store had been robbed and he “had been waiting for police.”

As for why it took nearly three hours to respond to a robbery call of a Seventh Street business — and the response appeared to happen by chance — police spokesman Sgt. Mike Ernster said that because the incident was no longer an active scene and no medical assistance was needed, it was given a lower priority.

The business was closed Tuesday afternoon and the owner could not be reached.

Police did not have detailed descriptions of the suspects.