DAVIE, Fla. – Police are searching for a masked man who attacked a hotel clerk during a botched armed robbery in Davie last month.
Davie police on Monday released surveillance video from the robbery that shows the robber attacking the female front desk clerk on Dec. 22 at the Woodspring Suites in the 5700 block of Reese Road.
Mark Leone, a spokesman for the Davie Police Department, said the man entered the hotel about 4 a.m. and demanded money from the woman at gunpoint, but she told him she did not have the combination to the safe.
In the video, the robber then pushes himself over the counter and grabs the woman from behind, holding his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming for help. The woman fights back for about five minutes. When hotel guest Mike White entered the lobby, the robber then fled the hotel empty-handed, Leone said.
White and his father said they were walking outside when they heard loud cries for help.
"We heard screaming and as we were opening the door to go throw the garbage out, and there I turned and the man actually had his hand on her," White said.
The video shows White holding a white trash bag as the robber flees.
White said he was more concerned for his father than his own safety. The two said they are just fortunate their presence alone was enough to prevent this man from hurting anyone.
"I wasn't scared. I wasn't really anything. I was just more, like, shocked something like that was happening," White said.
The managers at the Woodspring Suites said that the clerk was shaken, but she was not injured. She returned to her overnight shift the next day.
Police described the robber as a black man in his 20s, between 5-feet-10 inches and 6-feet-1-inch tall. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black gloves and purple athletic shoes. The man covered his face with a red shirt.
Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to contact the Davie Police Department at 954-693-8200 or Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.