Police Arrest Suspect In Violent Store Robbery

Miami Police have arrested a man in an alleged sledgehammer attack on a Miami store clerk that left him in critical condition.

The 50-year old accused man was booked into a Miami-Dade jail just before 5 a.m. Thursday on charges of first-degree attempted murder, burglary with assault or battery, armed robbery and false imprisonment with a deadly weapon.

Police say that the accused entered Alex's Mini Market at 501 Northwest 12th Avenue in Little Havana on Sunday afternoon and brought two gallons of milk to the counter.

When the clerk began to ring the items up, the accused allegedly pulled a bottle from his pocket and started spraying the clerk with an unknown chemical. The suspect walked around the counter and hit him in the back of the head with a sledgehammer several times, authorities said. He grabbed two cartons of cigarettes and fled the scene on his bike.

The entire attack was caught on the store's surveillance system.

According to a Miami Police arrest report, the accused was spotted by officers on Tuesday in the area of Southwest 33rd Avenue and 8th Street wearing clothing that matched the suspect in the store's surveillance video.

Police reports indicate that he had "several packages of cigarettes and a hand lotion container consistent with the items taken and used in the incident," the report said. His fingerprints also matched prints from a carton of cigarettes left at the store, the report said.

According to the report, the accused told detectives he'd never been in Alex's Mini Market, but said the hand lotion container was filled with mace he "used to blind people."

The accused is being held without bond.