Suspected Gas Station Armed Robber Who Was Shot By a Store Clerk in 2nd Incident Returns to Flagler to Face Charge

Qwinntavus Kwame Jordan, the 32-year-old man suspected of armed robbery at the Shell convenience store on State Road 100 in Palm Coast last April, and of another robbery in Georgia hours later, where a store clerk shot at him eight times, was booked at the Flagler County jail Wednesday, on no bond, to face a first-degree felony charge of armed robbery.

Jordan, a convicted felon, had previously been held in a Duval County jail and had not been in Flagler County since the morning of the armed robbery. Few details of the robbery had been known until now, and it is still not clear whether Jordan actually had a weapon when he confronted the store clerk at the Shell station, though he did have one in a second robbery that night. When Jordan told him to give him all the money in the cash register, the store clerk asked him if he was serious.




“Don’t make me pull it out,” Jordan told the clerk, gesturing toward his waist band, where he claimed he had a gun. The clerk gave him $90 in cash. Jordan also took two bottles of Gatorade, 15 cigars, a bag of Hot Flaming Cheetos, and a tankful of gas that rang up at $44. Premium, no less. As Jordan was pumping gas, he went one demand too far: he told the clerk to give him his car keys. The clerk refused. Jordan got “agitated,” according to his arrest report. The clerk for a moment thought he’d be hurt. But Jordan got in his car and drove off. The clerk called 911.

License Plate Readers and law enforcement agencies to the north traced the car up I-95. A traffic stop was attempted in St. Johns County. Jordan did not stop. That turned into a chase that extended first into Duval County. Somewhere on I-95, with the Jacksonville and St. Johns Sheriff’s units chasing him, Jordan fired at least one round from his gun, hitting a civilian’s car driven by a woman. She was in the middle lane on I-95, between Jordan’s vehicle and a law enforcement vehicle. She was first sideswiped by Jordan, then she heard a loud bang. A bullet hole was later found on the driver’s side. The woman was not hurt.

The chase continued into Nassau County, where the Sheriff’s Office declined to take part, then into Georgia, where police in Kingsland attempted to stop the car with stop sticks. A tire was punctured, but the vehicle traveled on–until it was discovered in a ditch. The car was empty.




Not long after the discovery, Kingsland police got word of an armed robbery at a Friendly Express, a convenience store not far from the scene of the crash. There, a man believed to be Jordan pulled out a Ruger LCP handgun and demanded that the clerk give him the keys to his vehicle. The clerk complied. Jordan got in the car and drove a distance, then put the car in reverse and intentionally crashed it into the front door of the Friendly Express. Jordan then got out of the car and chased the clerk to the back of the store. The clerk had armed himself with a gun–and fired at Jordan, “striking him 8-9 times,” according to the arrest report.

Jordan was arrested at the convenience store. Surveillance video from the two convenience stores confirmed that Jordan was the same suspect at both incidents. In Georgia, he faces charges of armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. In Flagler, he faces one count of robbery with a firearm, punishable by up to life in prison.

County Judge Melissa Distler set his bond at none after his first court appearance here today. He is to be represented by Assistant Public Defender Bill Bookhammer. Jordan does not appear to have prior connections to Flagler County.