Columbia Police Department officers responded to an armed robbery at 6:47 p.m. Thursday night at Casey’s General Store on Paris Road, a CPD news release issued Friday stated.
A female victim reported she was getting gas when another vehicle pulled up and blocked her. A man and a woman got out, both of whom the victim claimed to know.
The two suspects, Kecia Goldman, 26, and Damian Dancy, 23, began arguing with her about a stolen rental car. Goldman reportedly hit the victim with an unknown object. She had a handgun hanging out of her pocket but did not use it. Dancy implied that he also had a gun, but did not use it, the news release said.
Goldman took money from the victim’s hand and out of her vehicle, and the two fled the scene in a black sports utility vehicle, the news release said.
CPD does not believe the robbery had anything to do with the general store.
“We don’t think the crime has any connection with the business or any of the employees,” Sgt. Joe Bernhard, a CPD spokesman, said. “We believe one person was getting gas and the other people spotted them and pulled up.”
The victim sustained a head injury when Goldman hit her but was not taken to the hospital, according to the news release.
There are currently warrants out for the arrest of Goldman and Dancy through the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office on charges of first-degree robbery and armed criminal action, the news release said.
No new developments have been reported, and the suspects have not been arrested.
“Detectives are still trying to gather more information on the case and looking for the suspects,” Bernhard said.
Thursday night’s armed robbery is part of the higher than average crime rates that Columbia experiences, as studied by Neighborhood Scout, ran by Location, Inc.
Location, Inc. is a source of location-based data and risk analysis information for corporate users nationwide, according to their website.
Neighborhood Scout’s data found that Columbia is safer than only 11 percent of U.S. cities. It is not among the communities with the highest crime rates, however.
On average, the chance of being a victim of a violent crime is 1 in 186, according to Neighborhood Scout’s data. When considering the state of Missouri as a whole, that chance decreases to 1 in 224.
In Columbia, violent crime rates occur at a rate higher than in most other communities, Neighborhood Scout’s data found.
Cityrating.com, another website that studies crime statistics across the country, predicts that Columbia will experience 552 cases of violent crime in 2013, with 156 of those crimes being classified as robbery.
