Published: June 28, 2007 08:48 am      

Armed robber strikes victim, flees

BEREA — Berea police are searching for a robbery suspect accused of assaulting a Manchester man after holding him at gunpoint and robbing him.

Roger Taylor, 31, had just ended his work day Wednesday for Royal Crown Cola Company, when the incident occurred, a Berea Police press release stated. Taylor parked his tractor trailer at S&M Tobacco Store on Kentucky Hwy. 21 about 11:30 a.m. when he was robbed.

“Out of nowhere, an older, white male with a beard, (wearing a) blue baseball cap with some type of white logo on cap, pointed a handgun at him and demanded money,” the press release states.

Taylor gave the robber an undetermined amount of cash before the man struck him in the head with the handgun, the press release states.

“He came into the store and he just said that he had been robbed,” said S&M Tobacco cashier Connie Hensley. “He said they held him at gunpoint and they had hit him in the head.”

Hensley said Taylor was not bleeding, but had a large injury to his forehead.

“He was pretty much just really shook up from it,” she said.

It is common for RC Cola truck drivers to park their trailers beside the business, Hensley said. Taylor had just pulled in and was going over his log book when the robber pulled into the lot driving a gray Ford F-150 pickup truck, Hensley said.

“At first, I thought he had been in a wreck,” Hensley said. “He came in and of course he was frightened. He said, ‘Ma’am, call the police. I said, ‘What’s wrong, have you been in a wreck?’ And he said, ‘No, I just was held at gunpoint.’”

Taylor was transported to St. Joseph Berea Hospital for “precautionary measures,” the release states. Hensley received a call from Taylor late Wednesday afternoon telling her he was OK.

“He was still nervous from it, but he was all right,” she said.

The robber fled the scene in the pickup truck in an unknown direction. Anyone with information that could lead to an arrest in this robbery should call Berea Police at 986-8456.

Kelly Foreman can be reached at kforeman@richmondregister.com or 624-6694.