Store clerk recounts her rebellious response to robber

Tanyea Welker always knew she would react differently in a pressure situation. If a robber was going to threaten her, she was not going to give him any money.

That's not what police nor what typical training would recommend.

The Amerimart clerk has worked some form of cash register since she was 15 and 35 years total. When she was working at a Rhodes convenience store in Cape Girardeau, they would perform a regular evaluation on the way to handle an armed robber. Protocol, similar to Amerimart's, was to hand over all the money.

Welker said she always failed that part of the review because she said she would fly over the counter to stop the robber.

"I'm not fear-driven," Welker said. "I'm not a hero. I'm just made differently than most people."

Welker did not launch herself at William G. Driskell, 19, at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when Welker said he raised the band of his hooded sweatshirt to reveal the handle of a pellet pistol at an Amerimart store where she worked in Fruitland. Welker said it looked like the handle of real gun. Driskell had been waiting behind two other customers, and Welker thought it was suspicious when he walked up to the counter with his hood up.

"He said, 'You're going to give me the money,'" Welker said.

It took a heartbeat for the words to register, then Driskell showed her the gun. Now that she was threatened, instinct kicked in, and Welker reacted to that threat.

"The f--- I am," Welker replied.

Despite the expletive, Welker and Driskell were calm. She knew she could not reach the panic button because it was on the other register. Welker immediately reached for her cellphone in her back pocket, called 911 and began walking around the counter while keeping eye contact with Driskell.

"I make eye contact with people," Welker said. "He had no menacing look. There was nothing to say he was under duress. He was just as calm as could be."

Welker had a few goals with this maneuver. Her co-worker was on break and in another part of the store, and she wanted to warn him of Driskell's intentions. She also was making her way to the women's bathroom. She had to cross Driskell's path to do so, and she never lost eye contact with the would be robber.

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan advises store clerks in this situation to "make as little eye contact as possible. It would make a robber agitated and nervous."

Even before she made it all the way to the bathroom, she said she saw Driskell turn to walk out the door. Driskell ran to a nearby car wash, where he was picked up by his girlfriend, according to a probable-cause report. Welker continued to the bathroom and locked the door behind her while she was on the phone with the sheriff's department.

She thinks about the events now, and she's glad she did not go over the counter as she had told those managers at Rhodes. She said she thinks if she would have done that, someone would have gotten hurt.

"He didn't have his face covered; he didn't have his hands covered. What was going to keep him from hurting me?" she said. "I'm just a little 5-foot-1 person. ... I'm thankful it ended as it did."

Welker also empathizes with Driskell. She went on Facebook after the robbery and found out Driskell has a young child. When he attempted the robbery, Amerimart's semi-truck parking lot was full. One of the customers that went right before Driskell was in his truck scratching off lottery tickets. Welker said that customer usually carries a gun, but he did not have one that night because he planned to go to the casino later.

"What prompts someone so young to do something so foolish, especially with a play gun?" Welker said. "I can't wrap my head around it. ... I'm so grateful neither of us are dead."

Driskell was arrested later that night and faces a felony charge of attempted robbery, which can carry a prison sentence as much as 15 years and at least five.

Welker said she wants to talk to Driskell and find out why he was so desperate. Depending on how that conversation goes, she might offer her support in court.

"Four lives have immediately been changed: mine, his life, the lady that drove the car and the child they have together," Welker said.

She said she is not afraid to go back to work, but she said she will be more cautious. She said she is going to take an inventory of all the new customers, how they look and their probable intentions.

Jordan does not recommend other clerks' follow in Welker's footsteps, although he added everything worked out this time. He recommends giving robbers what they want and to keep the situation calm.

"Most of the time, all the person wants is money, and money is not worth losing your life over," Jordan said.

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