Employee shot in robbery; gunman remains on loose

Colorado Springs police are searching for a gunman who shot an employee during a robbery this afternoon at a cell phone store on South Nevada Avenue.

Police received a report of a robbery with shots fired at 12:55 p.m. at the Cricket store at 1638 S. Nevada Ave.

The wounded employee staggered out of the store bleeding from a gunshot wound in the shoulder and told a person who was entering, "I need help. I've been shot," according to police spokesman Sgt. Darrin Abbink.

There were two large blood spots on the pavement next to a silver, two-door sedan behind the store where the wounded employee waited for the ambulance which took him to Memorial Hospital.

The employee, whose name has not been released, is expected to survive, although the hospital was unable to provide his condition.

Police searched the area for the gunman, but they were unable to locate him. He was last seen in a silver SUV headed west on East Ramona Avenue from Nevada.

Workers at  nearby businesses said they didn't know anything had happened at the Cricket store until the ambulance and police cars pulled into the parking lot.

Nurses at a veterinarian's office, Aariana's Animal Hospital, said the area can be dangerous. Ivywild Pharmacy next door to the Cricket outlet was burglarized about a month ago, they said.

The Cricket store is one of the few businesses along the strip that does not front on Nevada Avenue. A locked door on the east side of the building instructs customers to park in a lot in the back of the building.

South Nevada, with its pawnshops, budget motels, convenience stores and fast-food-restaurants, has long been a high-crime area. Drugs, robberies and prostitution have long plagued the strip and surrounding neighborhoods.

Gazette staff writer Carlyn Ray Mitchell contributed to this report.