Video: Macon Police on the Hunt for Shooter in Gas Station Robbery

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MACON, Miss. (WCBI) – A Macon man is fighting for his life after a gunman entered a convenience store and opened fire last night. Twenty-eight year old Kris Haywood was working at the gas station when he was shot several times during the robbery.

For the third time in the last three months, a local convenience store has been robbed. Late last year, a store clerk was shot in Starkville and just last month a clerk was kidnapped in Columbus. This time it’s happened in Macon and now that community is on edge.

“You hear about this stuff up North but it’s at home now,” says Macon resident, Gilbert Eeaves, who frequents the gas station.

Armed robbery just doesn’t happen in the small Noxubee County community of Macon. Twenty-eight year old Kris Haywood, a convenience store clerk, was shot multiple times Monday night during a robbery at the Local Express on Jefferson Street.

“I was at home in bed and it was about 20 minutes after 11 and I got a call that said the station had been robbed and the man was shot. I came back this morning at 5:30. I was supposed to open this morning but it is what it is,” says Leo Hamill, who also works at the convenience store.

The gas station was temporarily closed Tuesday morning while Macon Police and the MBI investigated the incident. Hamill says Haywood had only been working at the gas station for a few months before he was shot. Haywood is a Macon native with strong family ties in the area.

“I know he was a young outstanding person in this town. His granddaddy was a preacher here for a long while,” says Hamill.

Macon Police Chief Lucious Mason says they’ve talked to a person of interest but no charges have been filed.

“People have concerns when something like this happens about safety. I want the citizens of Macon to know that we’re going to work tirelessly on this case until we get some body in custody, we get someone charged on this,” says Mason.

Chief Mason says they’re looking for a male suspect, with a slim build, who stands at least six feet tall.