Six young men swarmed a Whitehaven convenience store late Monday night, smashing a display case with a hammer and making off with roughly $8,500 in vapes and tobacco products — but not before one of them pulled a handgun on the clerk to keep the alarm silent. Memphis police are now asking the public to help identify all six, none of whom have been named or captured.
What Happened Inside Landmark Market
Memphis Police Department officers responded just after 10:16 p.m. Monday to a business robbery at Landmark Market, located on Horn Lake Road near Hewlett Road, according to WMC Action News 5. Officers say six unknown men entered the store together, and while one suspect stayed near the door, five others walked straight to a display case. The group then shattered the case's glass with a hammer and began grabbing vape and tobacco merchandise, the station reports.
As the theft unfolded, one suspect pointed a gun at the store clerk and warned, “Don't do it, don't do it,” apparently to stop the employee from triggering a silent alarm, per the same account. That suspect — described as wearing a black Nike hoodie, black pants and black-and-white Jordan Fight Club shoes — was armed with a silver-and-black handgun and carried a black backpack. All six suspects then fled on foot, heading southbound through the parking lot, according to the report.
Descriptions Released, Suspects Believed to Be Teens or Young Adults
Police believe all six suspects are roughly 18 to 20 years old, though none have been publicly identified. Investigators released detailed clothing descriptions for each: one suspect wore a dark-colored baseball cap with a gray-and-white jacket and carried a multi-colored backpack, while another wore a black ski mask, red hoodie and maroon Nike shoes. A third suspect was dressed in a black Levi's hoodie, brown pants and black Crocs and carried a black backpack, and a fourth wore a black Chucky hoodie, gray pants and purple-and-black Jordan 12 shoes. A fifth suspect wore a black hoodie, black pants and black-and-gray shoes and carried a black Nike backpack, the outlet's report notes.
MPD has released footage showing all six suspects involved in the robbery, though it remains unclear whether that footage has led to any identifications. The case is documented under incident number 2608023537ME. City of Memphis business licensing notices show the address at 4775 Horn Lake Road was previously known as Star Stop before a retail beer permit was issued for Landmark Market in June, according to the Memphis Daily News.
The Legal Stakes for Whoever Is Caught
Whoever pointed the gun at the clerk faces exposure to aggravated robbery charges under Tennessee law, since brandishing a deadly weapon during a theft elevates the crime from ordinary robbery to a Class B felony punishable by eight to 30 years in prison and fines up to $25,000, according to Justia Law. Separately, the theft of the roughly $8,500 in vapes and tobacco products could also support a Class D felony theft charge under Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-14-105, which covers property valued between $2,500 and $10,000 and carries two to 12 years in prison, per the same statute.
High-value vape inventory has become a recurring target for organized retail theft crews nationally, in part because of how easily the products move through illicit resale markets, according to a U.S. Department of Justice announcement of a federal task force targeting illegal vape distribution networks. It is not known whether the six suspects who hit Landmark Market operated as part of a broader crew targeting other Shelby County retailers, and police have not said whether any of the stolen merchandise has been recovered.
Robberies Down Citywide, But Convenience Stores Still Targeted
The Whitehaven holdup comes even as Memphis has posted steep declines in robbery and violent crime. Memphis Police Department data show 825 robberies were reported citywide through August 11 of this year, a 48.5% drop from the 1,603 robberies recorded during the same period a year earlier, per the City of Memphis public crime dashboard. That builds on a 31% drop in citywide robberies the department recorded for all of 2025 compared with 2024, alongside a broader 27% reduction in major Part I crimes.
The Memphis-Shelby Crime Commission separately reported that major violent crime fell 31.5% during the first half of this year compared to the same stretch in 2025, a trend local public safety leaders have credited to targeted state and federal task force operations, according to the TBA Law Blog. Still, convenience stores and tobacco retailers like Landmark Market remain frequent targets, and this incident is at least the third Hoodline has covered this year involving an armed convenience store holdup in Memphis, following a similar gunpoint robbery of a Whitehaven grandmother in May.
Anyone with information about the six suspects is asked to contact CrimeStoppers of Memphis and Shelby County at 901-528-CASH. Tips that lead to an arrest in felony cases can qualify for an anonymous cash reward of up to $1,000, an incentive that has previously helped Memphis investigators crack open multi-store robbery cases.
