Hana Frenette

hfrenette@pnj.com

A Pensacola man robbed a Beacon food mart store early this morning using a fake pistol.

According to a press release from the Pensacola Police Department, the suspect, Jarell Blackmon, 24, entered the store at 1101 W. Cervantes Street at 2:25 a.m., wearing camouflage, at hat and a bandana over his face. The clerk said he told the suspect to remove the bandana, but he refused. Blackmon then came behind the counter and pulled out a pistol which the cashier assumed to be real.

The robber managed to take cash from the drawer and 10 cartons of cigarettes before he fled the business. Before Blackmon escaped, the cashier, Abed Alsaq, 20, of Pensacola shot him.

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Blackmon was later seen in the area of E and Gadsden Streets by officer Matthew Mercado, and appeared to be bleeding from the neck. He fled from Mercado despite being ordered to stop.

Officers then set up a perimeter and Officer Patrick Kelly and his K-9 tracked the area for Blackmon, and found him hiding in the 600 block of North E Street. He was taken to the a hospital for treatment of his gunshot wound, which entered and exited through his neck.

Blackmon was charged with armed robbery, grand theft, public order crimes, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and resisting without violence. The report states Blackmon told the police the firearm he used was fake.

No charges have filed against the cashier, Alslaq.