A would-be liquor store robber came to regret his decision after being struck by a baseball bat carried by the 8-year-old daughter of the store manager.
The young girl has made headlines over the past week for her role in fending off an intruder at her father’s Big Discount Liquors store in Maplewood, Minnesota. On August 10, a man laid out both a bottle of alcohol and a gun on the counter, telling the cashier to give him “everything.”
The store manager—who was running and preparing to close the store around 9:30 that night—reportedly asked Conchobhar Morrell, 37, to leave the firearm out of the picture because his young daughter was also in the store. According to the girl’s father, the suspect hoisted himself over the counter and entered a skirmish with him.
The manager attempted to confiscate the gun, which wound up being a BB gun that only mimicked an actual one. According to surveillance footage of the incident, the manager’s daughter, age 8, can be seen carrying a baseball bat. The girl began swinging, striking the intruder before he fled the scene.
Later, Morrell was found nearby and taken into custody by police. Authorities noted that the suspect had sustained multiple injuries, including a bloody strike under his left eye and a busted lip. Upon investigation, police found in the suspect’s car both his cell phone and the clothes he had been wearing during the attempted robbery.
Although he has denied the case against him, claiming his injuries were not related to the robbery, Morrell has been charged with first-degree attempted aggravated robbery. The charge was dealt on Monday August 12 in Ramsey County court. The suspect hails from St. Paul, Minnesota.
According to documents, Morrell has a previous conviction of the same charge dating back to 2004. He was also reportedly employed by Amazon at the time of the recent incident. The company later said that he worked for a third-party service that delivered Amazon packages, adding that he would be “immediately offboarded.”
