THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503040417
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: AHOSKIE LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
McClay ``M.C.'' Hall usually carries a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol in his pocket after he opens his country store in the northeast part of town.
But Thursday, the pistol was feeling heavy, so the 75-year-old store owner placed it under the cash register. About an hour later, Hall was groping for the gun and firing at a young man who had just slashed Hall's throat and stolen about $15.
``I shot at him, but I didn't get him,'' the proprietor of M.C. Hall's General Store said Friday, his neck sore and swollen from a 6-inch gash just below his jaw.
``I'm doing pretty good, under the circumstances. I really am,'' Hall said. ``I've been trying to take it easy all morning.''
On Thursday, Hall watched as a young black man with a slight build came into the store at 11:20 a.m. and appeared to shop. The man picked up a can of furniture polish and headed to the counter.
Hall turned to open the cash register when the man grabbed Hall's head with one hand and used the other to cut his neck with a sharp object. The assailant then grabbed about $15 from the till and took off.
``I bled so much I thought that he'd cut an artery,'' Hall said. He summoned enough strength to pick up his gun, walk outside and shoot at the robber as he ran away.
A minute later, a man drove past the country store and noticed Hall struggling. He picked up Hall and raced the shopkeeper to Roanoke-Chowan Hospital in Ahoskie.
The Good Samaritan was Ross Phelps, who runs a logging company in nearby Bertie County, said Ahoskie Police Chief Steve Hoggard.
Hoggard said his department is searching for a medium-complexioned black male in his late teens or early 20s who is about 5-feet-7-inches tall.
He was last seen fleeing Hall's store, in the 1100 block of North Catherine Creek Road, on foot. He was wearing a dark baseball cap and white sweat jacket, Hoggard said.
Hall said he had never seen his assailant before, ``and he knows everybody down here,'' the police chief said.
``One reason we think it wasn't someone from the area is because everybody knows Mr. Hall carries a gun when he's in that store.''
Hall's country store, located near Vann Elementary School, has been a mainstay in the Ahoskie community since it opened in 1949.
The shopkeeper said he's been robbed twice before. The last time was about 20 years ago, when two robbers bound and gagged him before taking off with the loot. The two eventually were caught.
Crimes like Thursday's armed robbery, though still rare, are happening more often in and around Ahoskie, where about 20 percent of Hertford County's 23,000 residents live.
Anyone with information on Thursday's robbery is asked to call the Ahoskie Police Department's Crime Stoppers hotline at 332-4066. Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and apprehension of the suspect.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERY by CNB