A man armed with a handgun robbed Lincoln Street Grocery in Hoquiam Monday morning, prompting a police and K9 search and the lockdown of nearby Lincoln Elementary School.

Store clerk Lizbeth Burd was behind the register at the time of the robbery. A man she described as white, about six feet tall with light colored eyes and wearing a full plastic face mask, pulled a handgun and demanded money from the register. She said the gunman became agitated when he felt she wasn’t complying with his demands quickly enough. He took about $165 out of the register and fled the scene. Responding Hoquiam officers reviewed surveillance footage and said the suspect left the scene heading north on Lincoln Street. A K9 unit was among the searchers who flooded the area, but as of midmorning Monday the suspect was still at large.

Nearby Lincoln Elementary, just a few blocks from the crime scene, was placed in lockdown during the search. Hoquiam Police vehicles could be seen parked in a gravel area near where Lincoln Street becomes Perry Avenue, searching the banks of the Hoquiam River near its confluence with the Little Hoquiam River, in the area of the Little Hoquiam Shipyard.

“Unfortunately, the way the neighborhoods are around here any more you know it can happen any time,” said Burd. This is not her first robbery; many years ago she was faced with a robber claiming to have a gun at a Circle K where she was employed.