Updated 01/06/2008 04:48 PM
2 Gastonia clerks injured in shooting
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GASTONIA, N.C. -- Two clerks were severely injured late Saturday night in a shooting at a Gaston County convenience store.
Ken's Superette, on the corner of West Airline and May avenues is known throughout the neighborhood. Owners of the store say it was their daughter, Vicki Madsen, and her fiancé, Luke Williams, who were shot.
Faye Allen and her husband own Ken’s but she says Vicki and Luke have run the store for years. This is not the first holdup, but she says this is the first time things turned so violent in a neighborhood her family knows so well.
"It's just a little old mom and pop store," Allen said.
Vicki Madsen, and her fiancé, Luke Williams were shot late Saturday night at Ken’s Superette in Gastonia.
Ken’s Superette has been in the family for more than two decades, and it’s the type of store where anyone who knew the owners wouldn't want to cause them any harm.
"Everyone down here knew them and liked them," Allen said of her daughter and Williams.
Allen says the couple was closing the store Saturday night when things took a violent turn.
"Someone came in shooting. They were getting ready to close and they just didn't know what was happening. When Vicki saw it, they started shooting," Allen recalls of what her daughter told her about the violent robbery.
“They had to put a breathing tube in her because she can't talk or breathe without it," Allen says of her daughter’s condition.
Allen says Williams scrambled for his gun and got off at least one shot at the suspect.
Allen says her daughter was shot once in the back of the neck and the left shoulder and Williams was shot in the shoulder and the chest.
"They were real good people, both of them. Like I said, they help people out in the neighborhood that don't have anything; they give them little credit here and there. They would just do anything for anybody. It's senseless," said Gene Kimsey, a local who knows the couple.
Kimsey is just one of dozens of neighbors who came by the store Sunday morning, hoping and praying for some good news.
"They were fine people and I just don't understand what happened here," says Thomas Glenn another local who is friends with the family.
At last check, Gastonia Police say no arrests have been made.
Madsen was last listed in critical condition. Her mother says she was scheduled for surgery around 3 p.m. Sunday. Williams was last listed in serious but stable condition.