Security guard shot at inside store after string of robberies

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Police are searching for an armed robber who opened fire on a store security guard, and it was all caught on surveillance video.

Joe Watkins says he is blessed to be alive. Surveillance video shows the gunman running up to the front door of Exotic Pleasures Two in Jonesboro. As he opens the door, he seems to see Watkins. The gunman pulls the trigger and fires off a round. Luckily, it misses Watkins and instead, hits and shatters the glass door.

Watkins says he was sitting inside the store when the gunman came running up in a mask made popular in the movie "Scream."

"I see hoodie, mask, gun," Watkins said. "This guy actually shot at me."

Watkins had only been on the job for three months. He was supposed to be off that day. He says he fell to the floor, trying to avoid getting hit. He told Channel 2's Tom Jones, he tried to hit the would be robber, but there was a problem. When he squeezed his gun, he didn't realize the gun's safety was on.

"God was protecting us both. It wasn't his day to die, it wasn't my day to get hurt," Watkins said.

Watkins told Jones he thinks the gunman had been in the store casing it out and already knew his schedule.

Police say the store has been hit five times in the last year.

"All five incidents were handgun-involved. This is the first incident where a shot was fired, "Sgt. Brad Pair said.

"If I'd have flicked the safey off, you'd have been doing an entirely different story," Watkins said.

Police said the gunman is still at large.

WSBTV