An Akron jeweler is recovering after being shot during a robbery Thursday night and police are still looking for the thieves.
Officers were called at 7:50 p.m. to Sam's Emporium at 468 Exchange Street in for a report of a robbery and shooting.
Surveillance video shows three males entering the store and using an ax to bust open a display case.
Eduardo Escudero, a 49-year-old jeweler, was shot in the left arm during the robbery.
Co-workers believe Escudero's life could may have been spared by the watch he was wearing because the bullet bounced off his Citizen Skyhawk Blue Angel before shattering.
"If you have faith, you can look at it that way-- a millimeter off here, a fraction of a movement, just a teeny fraction-- and instead of the arm, it could have been the chest," said Curtis Post who witnessed the robbery and shooting.
Escudero underwent surgery Friday at Cleveland Clinic Akron General Medical Center.
The thieves bolted from the store with eight or nine Rolex watches and took off in a silver Chevy Impala.
The suspected getaway vehicle was located early Friday near the intersection of Copley Road and Nome Avenue.
The shooting prompted the University of Akron to issue a campus-wide alert. The school was not placed on lockdown.
The suspects are described as:
1. White male, 20 – 25 years old, 5’10” – 6’2”, 160 – 170 lbs., with blonde messy hair, beard and moustache, and wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, gray jogging pans and black shoes. He had a birth mark or mole on his left face cheek and was armed with a handgun.
2. A dark complexioned black male, 20 – 25 years old, 5’10” – 6’2”, 140 – 150 lbs., and was wearing a black mask, a black hooded sweatshirt with a blue stripes, black pants and black shoes.
3. A dark complexioned black male, 20 – 25 years old, 5’10” – 6’2”, 170 lbs., and was wearing a black mask, a black hooded sweatshirt, black pants and black shoes.
4. A black female, no further description.
Anyone with information should call police at (330) 375-2490 or Summit County Crimestoppers at (330) 434-COPS. Crimestoppers is offering a reward up to $5,000 for information leading to the crooks. Tipsters can remain anonymous.
