CHAMBERSBURG, PA.
A woman was shot in the leg Thursday during an armed robbery outside of CVS Pharmacy at 125 W. Washington St., according to Chambersburg police.
"I spoke to her. She's conscious and alert," Detective Sgt. Dianne Kelso said at the scene. The woman had a gunshot wound to the leg and was taken to Chambersburg Hospital for treatment, Kelso said.
The robbery took place shortly after 4 p.m., when the woman was shot and her purse was stolen outside the drug store, police said.
The 46-year-old Franklin County woman was walking to her vehicle, parked in a far lot, when she was approached by a man standing on the sidewalk outside of the store, police said. The man demanded she give him her purse, and as she was backing away, the woman saw that the man had a gun, police said.
The man shot the woman while taking her purse. A customer inside the store said she heard one gunshot and came outside.
"I ran out and the woman was on the cement there and the guy was running up the alley," said the woman, who did not give her name. The woman said she had seen the man standing on the north side of the building when she was going into the store.
"He looked different. He just had that glare," she said. The woman said the man watched her as she got out of a car and went in the store.
Detective Will Frisby said the robber is black and appeared to be in his mid-20s, about 6 feet tall with a medium build and shoulder-length braided hair. He was wearing a black 'do rag, dark blue T-shirt, baggy full-length jeans and black sneakers.
He was armed with a semiautomatic handgun and ran off with the victim's black purse, Frisby said. After the shooting, the man ran east, through an alley between Water Street and Ludwig Avenue.
Several borough police detectives and patrol officers responded to the scene, including a K-9 unit to the alley where the man fled. Before Kelso left CVS at about 4:30 p.m. to interview the victim at the hospital, she said that no one had been taken into custody.
One brass shell casing could be seen on the parking lot inside an area taped off by police. Because the bullet appeared to have passed through the woman's left thigh, police were looking for the bullet.
Police said the weapon is believed to be a semi-automatic handgun.
Detective Scott Mummert said the victim's injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. There was an off-duty nurse in the store at the time and she administered first aid to the victim until an ambulance arrived, police said.
The victim's white Oldsmobile sedan was parked in the CVS parking lot.
Several witnesses saw the man standing outside of the store. Officers are asking anyone with information about the incident to call police at 717-264-4131.
