A Bellingham woman suspected of attempting to rob a Birchwood neighborhood convenience store with what appeared to be a gun was shot in the upper buttocks/hip by the store's clerk.
The Bellingham Police Department booked Grace Francis Cooper, 24, into Whatcom County Jail Friday, Oct. 1, on suspicion of charges including second-degree theft, first-degree robbery, taking a motor vehicle without permission. Jail records show she is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
At 2:57 a.m. Sept. 21, officers were sent to the 7-Eleven store on Northwest Avenue for the report of an armed robbery, Whatcom County Superior Court documents show.
Police spoke to the store clerk, who reported Cooper, wearing a red coat and facemask, walked behind the counter, pointed a black handgun at his head and demanded money from the register, documents state.
The clerk told police that he grabbed the handgun and wrestled it away from Cooper, sending it sliding across the floor, according to documents. An unidentified male companion of Cooper's joined her, and they confronted the clerk, and Cooper punched the clerk in the face, documents state.
The clerk told police that he drew his own handgun from his waistband and told Cooper and the man to leave, documents state, but as Cooper was leaving she turned and walked toward her gun on the ground. It was then that the clerk fired a single round, striking Cooper in the right upper hip/buttocks, according to documents.
Police retrieved Cooper's gun from the clerk and found that it was a replica pellet gun, documents state.
Minutes later, Cooper was found across the street, where she had collapsed, according to documents, and she was taken to St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham with the gunshot injury.
Cooper admitted to police that she had attempted to rob the store, according to court documents, and surveillance video confirmed it
Court records also show that Cooper is suspected, along with a male accomplice, of stealing $800 from an elderly victim who hired Cooper and the accomplice to do some yard work on Aug. 12. She also is suspected of returning to an apartment of an acquaintance on Sept. 8, taking his car keys and then his car without permission, documents show.
___
