Clerk had plans to quit before store robbery and shooting - wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather & Sports

JEFFERSONVILLE, IN (WAVE) - It's something people usually see only on TV shows or at the movies: A robbery that ends in gunfire. It became a reality on Saturday for one Kentuckiana clerk. Now, Loretta Banister is describing what it was like when she realized her coworker had been shot.

Banister still has a paycheck to pick up at Red Carpet Liquors in Jeffersonville, but she really doesn't want to go back there.

"He was shot three times, but there were four shots," Banister remembers. She can't get it out of her head. 8:18 Saturday night was the moment her co-worker was shot. 

"The pop, pop, pop," she said. "I heard four pops, and one of the shots went into the shelves behind the counter."

Banister was in a back stock room and heard someone come through the door. As she turned the corner, she saw an arm over the counter and a gun pointing at her coworker. Instinctively, she dropped to the floor.

"I could hear a voice, the big deep voice," Banister continued. "He said give me the money!"

Banister said it felt like it wasn't real, like it wasn't really happening.

It became all too real when she heard those four shots and saw coworker Patel Kamleshkumar wounded. "I saw the blood coming out of him," Banister recalled. "I saw one of the bullet holes that was in his stomach and the blood that was coming out."

Banister said she pushed the store's panic button and called 911 on her cell phone. She then called her sister Barbara Dunn who manages the store. 

What makes this so ironic is that Banister had planned to quit before her shift but promised her sister she would work one final shift Saturday night.

Banister had just met Kamleshkumar and said he was still trying to master his English. Banister believes he may have been shot because he didn't understand the robber's commands.

She's glad she was there to call for help. "I guess there was a reason I had to be there, you know, because if I wasn't there, he wouldn't of known what to do or he could of just laid there," Banister said.

Banister did not get a good look at the gunman's face, but police have surveillance video.

Both sisters said they have no plans to go back to work. 

They were told Kamleshkumar had surgery and is stable condition at University of Louisville Hospital.

Anyone with information about the robbery and shooting is asked to call Jeffersonville Police.

Copyright 2012 WAVE News. All rights reserved.