Grandmother shields 4-year-old grandson during violent store robbery

— -- Police in Lowell, North Carolina, are looking for a robber who struck a man and a convenience store clerk, who was shielding her grandson.

Before the robber entered the convenience store, police said, the store clerk's adult relative had walked in with her grandson to visit her.

The armed thief approached the counter while both were still in the store. Surveillance video showed the suspect standing at the counter, then quickly pulling out a gun and grabbing the adult man, demanding money from the register.

After hitting him with the gun, the robber went around the counter, pointing his weapon at the clerk and allegedly threatening her grandchild, who was standing behind her.

The clerk told her grandson to run out of the store. The robber hit her with the gun and demanded that the clerk open the register, according to police, but she was unable to because her key got stuck in the register during the initial attack.

The robber then fled the scene, appearing to take several packs of cigarettes, and got into a car waiting for him in the parking lot. He was able to escape and is still at large.

"We’ve got a couple of leads, but nothing concrete yet," Lowell police told ABC News. "Our priority is to find this person."

The clerk suffered minor injuries in the robbery, according to police, and could not be reached for comment.