FAIRFIELD, Ohio -- Police searched Tuesday evening for a man who robbed a gas station and forced a woman to the ground while trying to steal her car for his getaway, according to another woman who witnessed the scene.
According to police, the man threatened Fairfield Fuel Mart cashiers at knifepoint Tuesday morning and then left the gas station, fleeing down Pleasant Avenue with cash in hand.
The clerk, who asked to not be named for his safety, said he tried to keep the man's knife away from his throat.
The robber had stood just inside the store, looking outside to make sure no one else was coming in, the clerk said. But the robbery apparently didn’t realize another man, Doyle Johnson, was in the back of the store.
"I heard scuffling and I knew that wasn't normal, so I got up and I come out and I see them wrestling with each other," Johnson said.
Johnson followed the man outside and around the corner.
"I'm handicapped and ... We didn't want to put ourselves in more jeopardy than we were already in," he said.
Barbie Foreman then spotted him sprinting across the parking lot toward the law firm where she works and threatening another woman. According to police, he made off with the second woman’s wallet; according to Foreman, he was also trying to steal her car.
"He was hovered over her with a knife to her throat, and she was just screaming," Foreman said.
Foreman ran inside to call 911, and the man fled into the woods on foot. After he left, Foreman waited with the victim until police arrived.
Police were still searching for the suspect Tuesday night. A news release from the City of Fairfield described him as a thin white man in a dark jacket and baseball cap.
