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SANTA FE — An armed robber fired a handgun at Santa Fe Home Depot loss prevention employees as he was leaving the store with over $2,000 in merchandise Monday afternoon, according to an incident report released Tuesday by the Santa Fe Police Department.

Officers believe the same man and his younger accomplice previously pointed guns at employees at an Albuquerque Home Depot while stealing similar items.

The Santa Fe Home Depot’s staff told police that a man who was about 50 years old, 6 feet tall and 250 pounds with a knit cap and a shaggy beard came into the store around 3 p.m. and was looking around in a “suspicious nature.” The man put two drills and three welders in a shopping cart and began to walk out the emergency exit at the rear of the store. When employees tried to stop him, he pulled a handgun from the front of his pants and said, “Do you want to die?” The workers took cover and heard the gun go off.

The suspect was in the doorway and yelling for another male to hurry up. He then got into a Chevy van with license plate number KDX112 that was parked near the emergency exit. The driver led officers on a high-speed chase on Cerrillos Road and onto southbound Interstate 25 before the pursuit was called off at the Waldo Canyon exit. The report says the van ran a couple red lights and nearly caused an accident on Cerrillos and Camino Entrada. Police later found a 22-caliber shell casing near the emergency exit of the store but couldn’t find bullet fragments.

Employees told police that the suspect had shoplifted before and was known to carry a gun. Officers say the same man took similar items from the Home Depot on Coors Boulevard in Albuquerque and brandished a gun at loss prevention employees Sept. 30. Workers at the Coors store also say a younger man had previously pointed a gun at them while taking similar items.

An Albuquerque Police Department officer spoke with the Albuquerque man whose name is registered to the getaway van’s license plate number, and that man said the license plate was stolen