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Surveillance video shows 3 young men in Kent gas station robbery, 2nd store robbed in Maple Valley

KENT, Wash. — Police in South King County are looking for three young men after two gas stations were robbed Monday morning.

Surveillance video shows just before 3:30 a.m. three young, black men in hoodies robbing a clerk at a 7-Eleven at 1208 Central Ave N. in Kent.

An hour later, three men matching the same description robbed the Chevron in Maple Valley at 27201 216th Ave SE.

“We were doing our sort of normal routine, and these three guys walked in, and they kind of stood there for a second,” Carol Schroeder told KIRO 7. “And I looked at them and knew this is not going to be good.”

Schroeder is still shaken after she and her coworker had a gun pointed at them at the Chevron.

“I turned around and saw the gun,” Schroeder said. “They had a gun and pointed it at Gary.  So he just let them take what they wanted to take. So I grabbed the phone and went in the back and called 911 and left poor Gary out here alone to handle it.”

The two gas stations are about a 25 minute drive from each other. The King County Sheriff’s Office is looking to see if it was the same three young men in both robberies. They don’t have a vehicle description.

In the Kent robbery, the clerk initially refused to hand over the money, and that's when you see a suspect waving the gun in his face. Schroeder says she didn’t notice any distinct features.

“They had hoodies that were tied tight around their heads,” Schroeder said. “They were young, fresh-faced.”

No one was injured in either incident.

“I had a few tears,” she said. “But I'm OK.”

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