A Dartmouth pizza shop employee is recovering after he was cut with a knife during an armed robbery overnight.
Mohamad Badour says robberies are far from rare in his job; he’s lost count of the number of times he has been targeted.
However, this was the first time things got violent for him.
“A guy he come in the store with [a] knife from [the] side door and he steal from us and he stabbed me with the knife,” Badour said.
Badour was working alone at Robert’s Pizza and Donairs on Windmill Road on Wednesday night, when a man and woman came into the store just before midnight.
When Halifax Regional Police officers arrived, they found Badour bleeding from cuts to his hands and arms. He also fell during the attack and hurt his back.
“The suspects in this matter left the business with an undisclosed amount of cash,” said Cst. Kristine Fraser.
Fraser says officers were on scene quickly and were able to locate the suspects at an apartment building on Primrose Street with the help of citizens.
Lemarco Sparks, 27, and Stephanie Nicholson, 23, were charged with robbery on Thursday morning.
Sparks is also charged with disguise with intent, assault with a weapon, uttering threats and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
Badour says he’s glad to hear the suspects were caught.
“People like this bad should be better taken off the street because they’re dangerous. He was dangerous. He stabbed me bad, you know,” he said.
Unfortunately for the pizza store, robberies are not a rare occurrence.
Owner Richard Horne estimates they’ve been robbed 13 times in the past two decades. In one of those incidents, Horne was shot in the leg.
“Fifteen years ago, almost blew my leg off,” Horne said. “They got a large bottle of pop — 2 L pop. That’s what they got in the shooting.”
Horne says he has security measures, such as cameras, but there’s little he can do to prevent robberies.
“It doesn’t matter what you do for security. The times we’re open at night, it’s bad times,” he said. “Deal with it I guess.”