GASTONIA, N.C. — Scottie Floyd has worked as a store clerk for 21 years and lived by one motto: Treat the customers well and they will treat you well.
But when he was working as a clerk at Jacob’s Food Mart in Gastonia and opened the door for a customer, he knew something was different.
“I knew the guy was up to something and that probably saved my life too,” he said.
Floyd told Channel 9’s Ken Lemon that the customer walked in wearing a tan hoodie and sunglasses, asked for CBD cigarettes, and glanced at the register. That’s when Floyd saw a gun.
“When I seen the silver of the gun, I knew what he was doing,” he said.
The customer didn’t make a threat or a demand, Floyd said. He pulled out his gun and fired three quick shots at Floyd and then bolted for the door.
“He would have shot me dead between the eyes,” Floyd said.
But he made a quick move that doctors told him saved his life. He threw up his arm and ducked behind the counter.
The shot hit his arm and broke two of his bones.
“He tried to shoot again but the gun didn’t shoot,” Floyd said.
He told Lemon he was scared the shooter would come behind the counter and keep shooting. Instead, the suspect ran.
“I thank God,” he said. “It was God.”
Police said the suspect fled to Forest City, about 40 miles west of Gastonia. They told Lemon he shot and nearly killed another man at an event downtown that same day.
The suspect, identified as Christian Campbell, was charged there with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, and he is waiting on new charges in Gastonia.
“Prosecute him to the full extent of the law because he didn’t have no regards for my life,” Floyd said. “He tried to take my life.”
Floyd told Lemon that over his 21 years as a store clerk, he has never felt the need for a gun. But next time he goes to work, he said he will be armed.
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