An eight-year-old Minnesota girl defended her dad’s shop from an alleged would-be armed robbery by beating the suspect with a bat, security footage shows.
Conchobhar Morrell, 37, was arrested and charged with first-degree attempted aggravated robbery after he was allegedly caught on camera entering Big Discount Liquors in Maplewood on Saturday night, CBS News reported.
The St. Paul man allegedly donned an Amazon uniform when he entered the liquor shop around 9:30 p.m., just before the store manager, Leo, closed it for the day.
“He put the gun on the table. He asked me to give him all the money and everything in the register. I told him, ‘Yes, I’ll give you everything,'” Leo said.
Leo was complying with Morrell’s orders, but a problem arose when the man, allegedly armed with a realistic-looking BB gun, moved closer to Leo’s eight-year-old daughter behind the counter.
After pleading with the suspect to just take the money and get away from his child, Leo punched him and wrestled him to the floor.
“I’m a dad; I’m not going to let that happen,” the store manager told CBS.
When Morrell fell to the ground, Leo’s little girl helped finish the job.
Security footage that the outlet obtained shows the brave child repeatedly whacking the alleged thief with a metal baseball bat before running to safety:
Video shows an 8-year-old girl using a baseball bat to help her dad fight off an armed robber wearing an Amazon uniform inside a liquor store in Minnesota. Her father, who's a store manager, told CBS Minnesota that he didn't expect her to join in.https://t.co/3xXpFA5We9 pic.twitter.com/7nxhcFTztQ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 14, 2024
“I’m so proud of her; she’s so strong,” Leo said, noting that he did not even see her participating in the tussle until he pulled the surveillance tapes.
“That day, I just wanted to cry. When I saw the video, I didn’t expect she’d do that. I expect a little girl crying, screaming,” the proud father added.
When he asked his daughter what made her jump in the fight, she told him that she wanted to defend him because she loves him.
An Amazon spokesperson told CBS that Morrell was working for a third-party delivery service that dropped off packages for the company and that he would be “immediately offboarded.”
Charging documents that the outlet viewed also revealed that Morrell already has a rap sheet, including a 2004 conviction for first-degree aggravated robbery.
