An employee at a Lower East Side smoke shop was shot in a botched robbery Wednesday, police sources said.
Three men wearing ski masks burst into Exotic Convenience on Clinton St. near Rivington St. around 6:50 p.m., cops and sources said.
The store sells weed, THC-laced oil and marijuana edibles, though it lacks a license to do so, sources said.
Once inside, the robbers tried to hold up the shop. They demanded money from the register, which they stuffed in a red bag, according to the manager.
“He was behind the counter when these guys came in,” the manager said of the worker. “We have no idea who they are.”
The robbery went sideways and one of the men shot the 34-year-old clerk in the torso, police said. The victim sometimes works as a guard, too, according to the manager.
They took off in a black car with tinted windows, bizarrely leaving the money in the bag on the counter, sources said.
A woman who witnessed the shooting from across the street told the Daily News she heard a “pop.”
“He was on his side scooting his way out on the sidewalk,” said the woman, who asked not to be named. “He was bleeding bad. His sweater was covering it. He was screaming, ‘Call the cops! Call an ambulance!'”
Medics took the injured man to Bellevue Hospital, where he was expected to survive.
It was not immediately clear what, if anything, the robbers made off with.
Since the state legalized recreational pot, unlicensed shops have been popping up all over the city, flummoxing the authorities.
Smoke shops have been hot spots for robberies of late.
In October, police were searching for two crooks who held up 21 stores — mainly smoke shops and bodegas — spanning over three months and three boroughs.
