An employee of the Clarendon (Virg.) retail store was shot about 10:15 a.m. this morning when she confronted a man who rang the doorbell at the back door, and who then held a handgun to her head after she opened the door. The unnamed 26 year-old employee was wounded in the shoulder by a single shot, and was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries that are not life-threatening. The suspect escaped, despite a search by Arlington County Police on the ground with dogs, and from the air with a helicopter. Customers were shepherded outside by employees, and none was injured. The store was closed and surrounded by yellow police tape for several hours. The victim told police she did not recognize the man, who was wearing a fake beard, and police believe the motive was robbery. About 12 employees and 30 customers were in the store, which had opened at 10 a.m. Update: See surveillance video of the suspect after the break.
On the surveillance video released by police (below), the employee is already outside the open rear door when clip begins, and slowly backs up as the suspect comes inside with a black handgun held to her face. Once inside, at one point the employee puts her palms up, as if asking the gunman not to hurt her. Within just 12 seconds the gunman says something to the employee, and then takes her off-camera through a doorway.
In a second video clip, the gunman runs back through that same interior door, and out through the back exit door. The video shows that once beyond the door, he turns left, which would lead to a stairway at the end of the utility hallway. In turn, that stairway might lead to the underground parking garage.
According to the surveillance video, the entire incident took just one minute and 54 seconds.
Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling told The Washington Post, “We are shocked by this senseless act of violence and our thoughts are with this co-worker and her family. We’re working with police to catch the person who committed this act.”
The store is located in a small shopping development in the up-scale community of Clarendon, an unincorporated area of Arlington County across the Potomac River from Washington (DC), and just several blocks from Arlington National Cemetery. The development includes office space, apartments on the second level, adjacent townhomes, and a large under-building parking garage.
The rear door of the 6,309 square-foot Apple store faces onto a long interior hallway that connects all retailers in that section of the development. This utility hallway is used by delivery personnel when carting in products, and by store employees when taking out trash. The hallway has just one exterior door, facing into a walkway that connects the interior of the development and the townhomes to the east. The other end of the hallway ends in a stairway into other levels of the development.
Apple stores are designed and constructed with certain security features, including for the rear door. Most obviously, the doors have two security viewers, or “peepholes,” installed at two heights to provide a 120º-wide view of the outside. A doorbell button allows delivery personnel to signal they are outside.
The door itself is designed and specified to provide substantial protection against forced entry, yet meet local life safety regulations that require it be available as an emergency exit. The outer side of the door has no door handle or lock keyway.
There are also other security features at the stores, including alarms and video surveillance. Police said they are examining surveillance tapes for any view of the incident.
Read the Arlington County Police press release.
In the video below, the suspect comes into the store through the back door, already pointing a black handgun to her head. The two disappear through the left doorway, into another room. Within two minutes, the suspect runs back through the rear door after shooting the employee, and turns left into the rear hallway of the building.
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The rear door of the Clarendon Apple store is indicated by the red area. The door faces onto a long interior hallway (in yellow) used for deliveries to the five stores in this section of the shopping development. The hallway ends at a stairway (left) and opens onto a walkway (right), which runs through the complex and out onto townhomes and North Danville Avenue (red asterisk).
