Convenience Store

A man wearing a dark, hooded coat robbed an Ellicott City convenience store clerk at gunpoint early yesterday morning, Howard County police said.The man entered the Shell Mini Mart in the 8500 block of Route 40 about 5:30 a.m., demanded money and fled the store with cash, police said.Witnesses saw the suspect enter a large blue four-door vehicle waiting outside.No injuries were reported, police said.Anyone with information can call Howard County police at 313-2266.POLICE LOG* Ellicott City: 3100 block of Sonia Trail: A chrome antenna valued at $20 was stolen from a Chevrolet Cavalier last Wednesday or Thursday.

Starting today, Sudhir Shah will close his Catonsville convenience store three hours earlier. In the fall, he will lock the door at dusk and only take in customers whose faces he recognizes. The changes, though, will end there. Shah said he won't keep a gun, trusting, instead that something such as the November robbery at his store — in which he was shot in the head and a customer was killed in front of him — will never happen again. "It screwed up my life," said Shah, as he prepared the store earlier this week to reopen on a full-time basis with a communitywide celebration.

A man robbed a service station and convenience store in Finksburg early yesterday after displaying a cloth-covered object that appeared to be a weapon, according to state police in Westminster. The incident occurred about 3:30 a.m. at the Tevis Oil Co. station in the 3100 block of Route 140, police said. A man carrying several items approached a cashier, then demanded money as the sale was being transacted, police said. He fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. The robber was described as a suntanned white male, 25 to 30 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 135 pounds, and dressed in blue jeans and a green T-shirt with yellow lettering.

Wilbert Franklin "Billy" Richardson, who operated a convenience store in the Empire Medical Building in Glen Burnie, died Wednesday at the Washington Hospital Center from complications following surgery. He was 64.A former municipal employee, Mr. Richardson worked for the Baltimore Department of Recreation as an instructor and as a manager for the Department of Housing.Born in Baltimore, he was a graduate of Frederick Douglass High School and earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from West Virginia State College.

State police have arrested a 17-year-old girl and her 23-year-old boyfriend, charging the Westminster couple in a string of recent convenience store holdups in Carroll.State police have charged Jefferson Johnson of the 300 block of Stacy Lee Drive with robbing the Exxon convenience store at Route 140 and Sullivan Road of $550 Feb. 17 and $317 Feb. 22.Mr. Johnson also is accused of robbing the Shell Jiffy Mart at Route 140 and Sullivan Road of $286 Feb. 18.Police also arrested and charged Mary Chider, of the same address.

MUCH TO the delight of the community, the once-abandoned convenience store on Baltimore Street has reopened. Since June 25, Haresh Patel has managed the new 7 Star food store. "I like the store," said Ray Mays of Savage, a longtime customer of the previous store, a Wawa Food Market. "It's what we wanted in the first place." The new store closes at 9 p.m. The Wawa had stayed open all night, and disturbances sometimes erupted there. The new store sells cigarettes, candy, ice cream, emergency supplies, newspapers and pet food.

County police are looking for the man who robbed a Severn convenience store Sunday night.Police said a man wearing a red flannel shirt and blue jeans walked into the High's Dairy store in the 2600 blockof Annapolis Road at about 9:45 p.m. and demanded money.The clerk gave him money from the cash register and the man left the store.Police describe the robber as a white male, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, with brown curly hair. He was last seen driving a white pickup with a washing machine in the back.