Store employees stayed calm
Workers kept customers safe during armed robbery
By SARA REED
SaraReed@coloradoan.com
Leslie Chance is trying to take a positive outlook on her experience Friday when a gunman entered her neighborhood grocery store.
Chance was picking up cat food and muffins at Safeway, 460 S. College Ave., when 19-year-old David Dubois came into the store with a loaded gun and stole prescription medications from the pharmacy, according to authorities.
Chance, who said she knows Dubois and his family, wants to thank the Safeway employees who kept her and other customers safe and the law enforcement officials who responded to the scene.
Chance was talking with an employee when another employee came "zipping along" and told them what was going on before ushering them to a bathroom and locking the door.
"It just seemed the safest thing to do, to get behind a locked door," she said.
Chance said she was impressed with how calm and collected Safeway employees were during the incident, risking their lives to make sure customers and co-workers were safe.
"The Safeway employees were selfless in everyway,” she said. “No one lost their cool, no one got hysterical. Just out of instinct, these people were inherently good.”
Chance said she and the two employees were afraid to leave the bathroom because they didn’t know whether Dubois was still in the store. She said they didn’t make a noise until they heard the SWAT team.
“We were yelling ‘Employee, employee,’ and we went out with our hands up,” she said. “The SWAT team officer put his arm around me and had a huge gun in the other hand. This man risked his life to get me out of the store.”
Chance said she heard three gunshots during the incident and that was confirmed by a detective she spoke with Monday.
Those shots, Chance said, were fired at an employee who was motioning workers at the Starbucks booth to get on the floor.
Dubois was arrested without incident in his teal 1993 Ford Ranger pickup truck blocks away on Whedbee Street between Olive and Oak streets. Police found an assault rifle, a .357 caliber handgun and OxyContin, a painkiller allegedly stolen from the pharmacy in the truck, police said. The guns were loaded and several shells or shell casings were also found on the street next to the driver’s side of the truck, police said.
Fort Collins police spent the day speaking with witnesses and collecting more evidence at the store, said Lt. Hal Dean.
Dean said it was unclear if Dubois had already left the store before police arrived but it is common in robbery situations for employees to call police after the suspect has left the store.
Police said Dubois was suicidal Friday and called his mother around 10 a.m. to “say goodbye.”
Dubois was advised Monday afternoon as to why he is being held in the Larimer County Detention Center.
Formal charges were not filed Monday, said District Attorney spokeswoman Linda Jensen. Dubois could face charges of armed robbery and kidnapping.
Dubois remains jailed with bail set at $350,000. He is scheduled to make his first appearance in District Court at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 28.
