Video: Moment store clerk fights off and shoots robber in Kentucky

LEXINGTON, KY -- Surveillance video shows a tobacco store clerk fighting off two robbers in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Tobacco Zone had been locked, but the thieves got in as a customer was leaving. They then went to the office and demanded money.

As one of the thieves rummaged through the cash register, he carelessly left his handgun on the counter.

"While he was struggling to get money out, he threw the gun on the counter. And I grabbed the gun and I pointed it," store clerk Zara Adil told WKYT-TV, "and I told him, 'I'm gonna shoot you if you don't leave.' And the second guy he just took off running."

The 21-year-old clerk ended up shooting the thief who stayed behind in the shoulder. She also pulled off his mask.

"Turns out it someone who had been here before (sic). And I asked him, 'Why are you doing this?' and he said, 'If you let me go, I'll just go.' And I said, 'Don't touch the money when you're leaving,'" Adil said.

The thief then ran out of the store empty-handed.

The clerk has some scratches and bruises but will otherwise be okay. She's hoping police will start cracking down harder on robbers. She also said she thinks robberies would be less common if everyone reacted how she did.

"Stuff that happens around here...nothing scares me," Adil said. "These people don't know respect, they don't give respect."

"(If they) start getting stricter punishments, I think robbers would have a lesson to them."

Police say they know who the robber is and have issued a warrant for his arrest.