A violent brawl laid waste to half of a gas station convenience store in Florida on Sunday after a man demanded the clerk hand over the cash in the register. The brave clerk attempted to fight the suspect off with a baseball bat before he was overpowered.
The suspect, identified by police as Dwayne Eubanks, fought the Sunoco gas station clerk at approximately 5:45am local time on June 18. Initially it was just hand-to-hand combat before things quickly escalated when the unnamed clerk reached for a baseball bat to defend himself.
“I’m very glad and thankful that he didn’t get hurt at all because it could have ended up in a bad way for him,” Anthony Patterson told WFTS local news, after his co-worker was attacked early Sunday morning.
The two men wreaked havoc throughout the store as they fought over the bat. When Eubanks successfully wrested the bat from the store clerk's grasp, the shopkeeper stabbed him in the abdomen in preemptive self-defense before fleeing the scene to raise the alarm with nearby sheriff’s deputies.
“It just did not end up very well for the man that came in here, tried to fight the clerk,” Patterson said.
Meanwhile Eubanks, described by police as a "black male, 5’8’-5’10’, 180-200lbs, bald, last seen wearing blue jean shorts," removed a brown paper bag filled with cash and fled the store.
“I’ve never been in that situation myself but I imagine you just have to act in the moment really, go off of adrenaline cause, it could be a split second and somebody take your life,” Patterson added.
Police have issued a warrant for Eubanks’ arrest for Robbery with a Weapon, Grand Theft and Aggravated Battery and have asked for the public's help in bringing him in.