During an Aug. 17 robbery of a Verizon Wireless store in Inver Grove Heights, Jamaal Marquie Mays allegedly pointed a .45-caliber handgun at a clerk’s head and told him to “make it easy on me.”
The clerk had another idea: He pulled his own gun from his waistband and fired three shots, hitting Mays twice and critically wounding him.
The allegations against Mays are detailed in a criminal complaint filed Monday in Dakota County District Court in Hastings charging him with first-degree aggravated robbery and two weapons violations — possession of a firearm by ineligible person and possession of a firearm with an altered or removed serial number.
Mays, a 32-year-old convicted felon with a lengthy criminal history in Minnesota, is recovering from gunshot wounds at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. He was listed in serious condition Monday.
A second suspect, who ran from the store after the clerk and Mays exchanged gunfire, remains at large.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police were called to the store — The Cellular Connection, at the northeast corner of Concord Boulevard and Cahill Avenue — about 11 a.m. for an armed robbery in progress. When officers arrived at the store, the clerk said he had shot one of two robbery suspects in self-defense.
The clerk, identified in the complaint by initials JCR, told police he had been helping the two suspects look at cellphones. After coming out of the backroom with a phone, Mays pointed a gun at his head.
“Believing (Mays) was going to shoot him, JCR pulled his gun from his waistband and fired what he believed to be three shots,” the criminal complaint read.
The clerk has a permit to carry a firearm, police said.
The serial number had been scratched off the pistol that Mays used in the robbery, charges say.
No one else was in the store at the time of the robbery, police said.
During the gunfire, a bullet grazed an employee at Super Wok Chinese Restaurant, which adjoins the cellphone store.
“This was a very frightening experience for the store clerk and others in adjoining businesses,” Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom said Monday in a statement. “We are thankful that neither the store clerk nor any other individuals were seriously injured as a result of this armed robbery.”
A 2000 Honda Odyssey minivan the second suspect used to flee the area was found Monday in St. Paul, Inver Grove Heights police Lt. Joshua Otis said.
Authorities are still working to identify the second suspect, who is described as a black man about 20 to 30 years old. He was wearing dark-colored pants, a dark-green jacket, baseball hat and black Nike shoes with a white swoosh.
Authorities ask that anyone with information about his identity or whereabouts call Inver Grove Heights police at 651-450-2525 or 911.
At the time of the stickup, Mays, who lives in Crystal, was on probation for a 2015 theft conviction in Hennepin County, according to court records. His criminal history in Minnesota also includes convictions for felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, being an accomplice after an attempted murder, trespassing and misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
The Dakota County attorney’s office said Monday in a statement that a first court appearance for Mays has not been scheduled because it is not known when he will be released from the hospital.
Meanwhile, the store clerk has not yet returned to work, manager Drew Barns said Monday.
“He seems to be doing well,” Barns said. “We haven’t pushed him to come back. It’ll be up to him.”