Aug 21, 2008 11:29 pm US/Eastern
Man Struggles With Getaway Robber In Hollywood
One Store Customer Stabbed Trying To Catch A Thief
HOLLYWOOD (CBS4) ―
This morning Eddie Edmunds was in search of a cup of coffee, but instead of a hot drink, he walked into the path of an armed thief.
Stab wounds cover the back and side of Edmunds. Surveillance video shows Edmunds about to walk into the Hollywood Bait and Tackle Store Thursday morning. That's when he says a thief threatened to kill him.
"I said if he gonna kill me, I'm gonna die trying," said Edmunds. "I ain't gonna let him do it freely."
Grainy security video showed a tall man in a green T-shirt, wrapping his head and face in another shirt on his way to rob a store in Hollywood on Thursday, and stab a customer in the process. That customer was Edmunds.
The seemingly crazed, knife-wielding attacker, struck three times in just over one hour, Hollywood police said.
The man, whom police said had a scar over his right eye, robbed the Hollywood Bait & Tackle, 1054 S. 56th Ave. The bandit robbed the clerk, and was then grabbed by Edmunds, who had chased him into the parking lot. The two men struggled, tumbling to the ground before Edmunds was stabbed repeatedly in the back.
"I had him on the ground, but he was tall," said Edmunds.
Tall enough to stab Edmunds several times and get away.
Jimmy Todd, who was in the parking lot, witnessed the stabbing.
"The customer tackled him, and the guy had a hood, and he got the hood off enough that you could see that he was white," Todd told
CBS4 News photographer, Manny Garcia.
At the tackle shop, a regular customer, who declined to give his name, said there may have been a bad outcome for the thief under different circumstances.
"He's lucky the owner wasn't here," the customer told photographer Garcia. "If the owner had been here, he would have taken care of him." The suggestion was that the owner "packs heat".
Security video from an adjoining store, Discount Auto Paint and Body, showed the attacker, a tall man, running from the scene.
Another attack was at the Big Mini convenience store, 7214 Taft St.
The convenience store owner's son, Shomar Hussain, told
CBS4 News Reporter Gary Nelson, "He got my dad and made him open the register. He had a knife, and told him 'Lay on your stomach! Lay on your stomach,'" Hussain added.
The take at the convenience store: $150 in cash, some cigars, cigarettes and assorted snacks.
It was on the corner of South 58th Avenue and Hood Street, where the man then robbed a pedestrian.
The suspect is described over six-feet tall with blonde/brown hair, and last seen wearing a "Cool G" green T-shirt and khaki pants, driving away in a white, four-door Mitsubishi.
Anyone with information is asked to call
Broward Crimestoppers at 954 493-TIPS.
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