North Carolina customer shot store clerk while buying beer, police say
An “impatient” customer who shot a North Carolina grocery store clerk while waiting to buy beer has been arrested, police said Wednesday.
Mario Antonio Harrison, 52, was caught on surveillance video shooting a cashier twice on July 31 at Apple Tree Grocery in High Point, where cops said he and another man grew restless during their botched beer buy.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that two black males were impatient and did not want to wait to pay for their beer at the cash register and went into the beer cooler to persuade
another employee to take their money [and] when he refused, the shooting occurred,” police said in a statement.
The clip shows Harrison confronting the employee in the cooler before he turns around and opens fire with a gun stashed in his pants, striking the 30-year-old man in the groin and legs. The wounded worker was taken to a hospital in stable condition, police said.
Harrison, who has previously been convicted of violent crimes, was later identified as the shooter. Warrants for attempted murder and possession of a firearm by a felon were obtained by investigators prior to his arrest in Lexington Sunday. He remains jailed on $1 million bond, police said.
An investigation into the shooting remains ongoing.
“No further information will be released at this time,” police said in a statement.
Harrison, of High Point, and the second man fled the store in a white Jeep Cherokee following the shooting, WBTV reported.
Anyone with additional information about the shooting is asked to call High Point police at (336) 889-4000.
