A masked man pointed what looked like a black handgun at a clerk inside a Spartanburg Circle K just before 4 a.m. Sunday, demanded cash from the register, and then bolted on foot toward Drayton Road before the trail was lost on Old Charlotte Road.
Spartanburg police officers were dispatched to the Circle K on East Main Street around 3:58 a.m. for a reported armed robbery, according to an incident report cited by FOX Carolina News. Surveillance footage showed the suspect entering the business from the Drayton Road side at approximately 3:56 a.m., the same report states. No injuries were reported in the incident.
Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office deputies had already set up a perimeter before city officers arrived, and a Spartanburg County K-9 team picked up the suspect's scent, tracking it from the store to Old Charlotte Road before the trail went cold there, per the same incident report. That kind of joint response between city police and county deputies has become a familiar pattern in Spartanburg armed robbery cases — in July, a similar combined K-9 search followed an armed robbery on Southport Road that ended in a vehicular pursuit and foot chase, as Hoodline reported in a wild highway chase.
What the Suspect Looked Like
Police describe the suspect as a Black male with a slender build, standing between 5 feet 9 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall. He wore a black hooded sweatshirt with a small white logo on the upper-left chest, along with black pants, black shoes, and black gloves, according to the incident report. A white cloth-like face covering left only his eyes visible, investigators said, and police and the sheriff's office have released no other information about his identity.
The Circle K sits near East Main Street and Drayton Road. The historic Drayton Mills complex — a 1902 textile mill that underwent a $60 million revitalization between 2014 and 2017 that turned it into 289 loft apartments, commercial space, and multi-use trails — is near Spartanburg, according to Wikipedia. The suspect's reported route took him on foot toward Drayton Road before the trail was lost on Old Charlotte Road.
Why Overnight Hours Draw Robbers
Convenience stores account for roughly 6% to 7% of robberies nationwide, making them the fourth most common location type for violent crime in the country, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting data. The Circle K's surveillance footage captured the suspect entering at roughly 3:56 a.m., an overnight time.
The article does not identify specific federal workplace-safety recommendations for Circle K stores.
The Legal Stakes if Caught
The available incident report does not state the applicable armed-robbery penalties or parole rules. In August, the 7th Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office secured four life sentences without parole against a man convicted in a separate violent Spartanburg County armed robbery and home invasion, a case Hoodline covered in life sentences for 2020 murders.
The available sources do not provide a national robbery comparison for 2025 and 2024. This early-morning commercial robbery involved a single clerk at a Spartanburg County store.
Anyone with information about the suspect's identity or whereabouts is asked to contact the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office's Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-888-CRIMESC (1-888-274-6372) or submit a tip through its online portal. The report does not mention a waiting vehicle or state the amount of cash taken from the register.
