Surveillance video shows armed robbery at Hampton Co. gas station; Officials ask for community’s help finding suspect

HAMPTON COUNTY, S.C. (WTOC) - We are learning more about an armed robbery that happened at the Nixville Country Store on Sunday night.

WTOC has watched the surveillance video from the incident, but has been asked by law enforcement not to show it because they say it could jeopardize the investigation.

In it, it shows a 17-year-old working his first job as a cashier coming face-to-face with a gunman.

The security video shows the suspect walking into the store and pointing his gun at the worker’s head.

The suspect then has him go to the cash register and empty it into a book bag.

When the bag is loaded with the money, the suspect then forces the worker to lock the door of the store, which he does.

Then the suspect turns from the register, gets on the ground, and loads his bag with several cartons of cigarettes.

He then has the worker go back to the front of the store, unlock it, and the suspect leaves.

Calanthia Bibbs, the manager of the store, says that $3,000 in cash and $2,700 of Newport cigarettes were taken.

Luckily, no one was injured in this exchange.

Bibbs says the worker was shaken up by what happened, and she says when she was called about the robbery, the most important thing to her was making sure he was ok.

“His life is in my hands, so I rushed here and calmed him down,” Bibbs said. “Stuff is replaceable, but a person isn’t. My heart just goes out to him and his family.”

Bibbs says she has been the manager for 15 years at the store and in that time has had to deal with an attempted robbery, but nothing of this magnitude.

“For it to happen here is kind of shocking to us.”

If you have any information that could lead to an arrest, you are asked to contact the Hampton County Sheriff’s Office, SLED, or the Nixville Country Store, which is offering a $5,000 reward.