A 7-Eleven clerk is lucky to be alive after he was shot in the neck during an attempted robbery of the Odenton convenience store early Thursday, according to Anne Arundel County police.
Police were called to the store at 1350 Odenton Road about 1:30 Thursday morning after a witness saw a man shoot the store clerk during an attempted robbery. The clerk, identified by police as Ajay Kumar, 33, suffered only a minor injury. He was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma, where he was treated and released.
“For whatever reason, [the suspect] didn?t get the money,” said Lt. David Waltemeyer, spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Police Department.
Citing a possible “language barrier” between Kumar and the suspect, identified as Brandon Jerome Thomas, 22, of the 3500 block of Spring Road in Laurel, Waltemeyer said Thomas went to leave the store, but turned back toward Kumar and fired a single shot that grazed Kumar?s neck.
According to a statement issued by Anne Arundel County police on the incident, Thomas was apprehended a short time later near a Severn 7-Eleven by Cpl. Kevin Mont, a K-9 officer on routine patrol. “It?s hard to say if he was casing it,” Waltemeyer said of Thomas being apprehended near another 7-Eleven.
Waltemeyer said a witness to the shooting at the Odenton 7-Eleven was able to provide a detailed description of Thomas and his vehicle.
The witness was outside the store during the shooting, and there was no one else inside the business, Waltemeyer said.
Mont pulled Thomas over for speeding, and after searching his vehicle, found the handgun allegedly used to shoot Kumar, Waltemeyer said.
Thomas has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, attempted armed robbery and the use of a handgun in the commission of a violent crime.
Thomas was being held Thursday at the Jennifer Road Detention Center without bail.
