DC carry out business targeted again in attempted armed robbery

WASHINGTON - Police are asking for the public's help to find two suspects who attempted to rob a business at gunpoint in Northeast D.C.

It happened on April 13 at around 8:05 p.m. at a carryout and lottery business on Michigan Avenue. Despite the suspects breaking into the business and pointing a gun at the store's employees, they did not get away with any money.

However, this is not the first time this business has been targeted and employees are now worried for their safety.

Surveillance video released by D.C. police show the attempted armed robbery was quick. Jason Kang and his wife were closing up the Avondale Coffee Shop that night.

"A guy got into the store [and] my wife said she believed it was a customer, so she said, 'We are closed,'" Kang recalled. "We closed the store, but he pushed the entrance one more time very strongly. My wife felt like there was something wrong - maybe it [was a] robber."

The reason she thought that is because a similar robbery happened in February. D.C. police also released video of this incident in which the suspects actually made their way into a secure area where the registers and proceeds from lottery ticket sales are kept.

Kang believes those thieves came back.

"Yeah, I believe so," he said. "It was like the same people and it was the same amount of people, and they [seemed] very familiar inside."

But in last week's attempted robbery, Kang's wife slammed the door shut before the thieves could make it into the enclosure.

"The robbers - they keep asking us, 'Open the door. Open the door,' but I didn't open it because I wasn't sure what they were going to do," said Kang.

According to the police report, Kang shielded his wife with his body until the gunmen left.

He said one of the men fired a gun and the bullet chipped off a piece of the counter.

The hope is some in the community can identify these suspect. They were wearing hoodies and shielded their faces from the security cameras.

Some store employees at this business have quit because of safety concerns. The owners said they plan to hire security guards. D.C. police also sent an email to the business saying there will be extra patrols in the area of Michigan Avenue and Eastern Avenue.