2 Workers Shot During Jewelry Store Robbery

Two workers at a jewelry store were shot and wounded during a “smash and grab” robbery, authorities said.

The shooting occurred Wednesday morning at Hodgkins Jewelers in the 1000 block of West Avenue K, said Lt. Terry Lewis of the Antelope Valley sheriff’s station.

Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics took the unidentified man and woman to the Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center. The man was treated for gunshot wounds to the hand and leg; the woman was treated for a wound to the leg, Lewis said.

Authorities said two men entered the store, made a small purchase and waited for other shoppers to leave. Then they pulled out guns and forced three employees and a jewelry wholesaler into the back office, opened a rear door and let in four or five accomplices, Lewis said.

While most of the robbers were smashing glass cases and pulling out jewelry, a fight broke out in the back office between one of the gunmen and an employee, Lewis said. The robber fired several shots from a handgun, striking the man and woman, Lewis said.

The men fled out the back door with “several items of jewelry,” Lewis said.

Witnesses described one of the robbers as a white man, about 6 feet tall, with spiked hair, from 23 to 30 years old and wearing black shorts. Another was described as a black man about 6 feet tall weighing about 200 pounds, Lewis said.