NIAGARA FALLS – The owner of the Merry Mart convenience store survived a butcher knife attack in which the assailant left blood-smeared cash as she fled the shop Monday night.
Police caught the suspect in the attack, Jolene A. Hill, 27, of Buffalo Avenue, shortly after the incident at Portage Road and Niagara Street.
Authorities said Hill walked into the store on 19th Street at 8:40 p.m. armed with a butcher knife.
Hill allegedly ordered store owner, Wael Rizek, 42, of Grand Island and a female clerk into a back storage area and threatened them with a long butcher knife.
Police said Hill stabbed Rizek in the stomach while demanding money. Hill walked the clerk back out into the store and over to the cash register in the store. In the meantime, Rizek escaped from the storage room.
During the robbery, a mother was in the store with her four-year-old son. She later told police she saw two women – including, authorities said, Hill – emptying the cash register. She yelled for them to stop. The customer was unaware of the knife which Hill had hidden behind her back when she walked back into the store from the back room.
The customer tried to stop Hill from fleeing the store, but Hill instead ran into the child as she fled, dropping most, if not all of the cash she had taken.
Rizek told police he saw Hill flee, heading west on Welch Avenue.
Officers James Woomer and Richard Fleck caught Hill at Portage Road and Niagara Street and put her into custody.
Police found blood on the door handle as well as blood-covered money in the doorway, police said.
Rizek was taken by ambulance to the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center emergency room. His current condition is unknown.
Hill was arraigned this morning in Niagara Falls City Court on charges of first and second-degree robbery, second-degree assault with a weapon, second-degree menacing, fourth-degree possession of a weapon and petit larceny. She was remanded without bail to Niagara County Jail. A return court date was set for Friday.
email: nfischer@buffnews.com
Police caught the suspect in the attack, Jolene A. Hill, 27, of Buffalo Avenue, shortly after the incident at Portage Road and Niagara Street.
Authorities said Hill walked into the store on 19th Street at 8:40 p.m. armed with a butcher knife.
Hill allegedly ordered store owner, Wael Rizek, 42, of Grand Island and a female clerk into a back storage area and threatened them with a long butcher knife.
Police said Hill stabbed Rizek in the stomach while demanding money. Hill walked the clerk back out into the store and over to the cash register in the store. In the meantime, Rizek escaped from the storage room.
During the robbery, a mother was in the store with her four-year-old son. She later told police she saw two women – including, authorities said, Hill – emptying the cash register. She yelled for them to stop. The customer was unaware of the knife which Hill had hidden behind her back when she walked back into the store from the back room.
The customer tried to stop Hill from fleeing the store, but Hill instead ran into the child as she fled, dropping most, if not all of the cash she had taken.
Rizek told police he saw Hill flee, heading west on Welch Avenue.
Officers James Woomer and Richard Fleck caught Hill at Portage Road and Niagara Street and put her into custody.
Police found blood on the door handle as well as blood-covered money in the doorway, police said.
Rizek was taken by ambulance to the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center emergency room. His current condition is unknown.
Hill was arraigned this morning in Niagara Falls City Court on charges of first and second-degree robbery, second-degree assault with a weapon, second-degree menacing, fourth-degree possession of a weapon and petit larceny. She was remanded without bail to Niagara County Jail. A return court date was set for Friday.
email: nfischer@buffnews.com