Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 19/98) - A lone gunman armed with a small-calibre rifle made his way into Linh's Convenience Store about 11:30 p.m. on Friday and robbed the lone attendant at gunpoint, report Yellowknife RCMP.

The gunman -- described as being a 20-35 year-old native male, 5' 8", 170-180 lbs., with no facial hair -- made off with more than $300 in the robbery. He was wearing a blue jean jacket and baseball hat at the time of the offence.

RCMP Staff Sgt. David Grundy said the holdup was the first armed robbery in Yellowknife in the past five years.

He said there was a rash of armed holdups in the early '90s, but the city has been free of that type of criminal activity since.

"All the robberies in the early '90s were solved during the next five years after they happened," said Grundy. "In fact, one person is still in jail as a result of those robberies. We don't, however, believe there's any connection whatsoever between those crimes and this incident."

Hien Nguyen was working alone in the store when the gunman entered the premises.

He said the suspect had his weapon prominently displayed and quickly fled the scene on foot after Nguyen handed over the money.

Nguyen said the incident was bad enough as it was, but it could have been much worse.

"During the robbery I noticed a woman coming toward the store with her children, but she probably noticed something was going on and hesitated.

"She and her children were just past the gas pumps when the man left the store."

Nguyen said he's angered by the armed intrusion and has every confidence local RCMP will apprehend the culprit.

"I'd like to see this low-life caught and we've given a good description to the police," said Nguyen.

"I think the police are putting in a very good effort on getting this guy."

The victim said the attack was surreal, almost like a dream when it happened, but now that he's had time to get over the experience, just wants to see justice done.

"It was quite a scary experience, but, looking back, I just want to see him caught. If he's still out there, he might do other things to other people.

"We have a security camera in the store and everything we had, we gave to police. I want to see this guy caught before something like this happens again."

Staff Sgt. Grundy said no arrest has been made, but the RCMP are following up on strong leads in their ongoing investigation.