Man shoots at store clerk over $5 transaction

A 20-year-old man was recently arrested for his involvement in an incident that took place on Dec. 12, 2022, at a food mart in Winder, where he fired a weapon at a store clerk during a dispute.

According to the police report, the store clerk involved in the dispute said the suspect was attempting to purchase a bottled drink using his phone on the card reader when he was informed of the store’s policy requiring a five-dollar minimum purchase in order to use a card. The suspect grabbed a bag of chips to add, but the total was still under the five-dollar minimum. The clerk told him he would sell the items anyways, but the suspect became upset and began cursing at the clerk. The clerk then refused to sell the items to the suspect as he continued to yell and curse at him. As the suspect began walking out the door, he knocked a few boxes of phone chargers off a shelf onto the floor. The clerk then grabbed a wooden stick and followed him out of the store. The man got into the passenger side of a car parked in front of the store. As the vehicle made a U-turn leaving the parking lot, the clerk threw the wooden stick at the vehicle, hitting it near the driver’s side tire. The clerk said that once the vehicle was near the road, the man pulled out a handgun and pointed it over the car’s roof and fired one round toward him and the building. The incident was recorded on surveillance footage, which corroborated the clerk’s story.