Police: Maplewood liquor store clerk’s 8-year-old girl rescues Dad, beats armed robber with bat

An 8-year-old girl came to her dad’s rescue while he was working at a Twin Cities liquor store and beat an armed robber with a baseball bat as her father won a fight for the weapon, according to police.

The pint-sized heroics late Saturday at Big Discount Liquors in Maplewood resulted in the arrest and a first-degree robbery charge being filed Monday against Conchobhar Joseph Morrell, 37, of St. Paul.

Morrell appeared in Ramsey County District Court on Tuesday and remained jailed in lieu of $40,000 bail ahead of a hearing on Friday. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

The clerk, who asked not to be identified out of concern for his safety, said Tuesday he thought his daughter was hiding in the store during the attempted holdup.

“I’m proud of her,” the grateful father said. “She’s a good girl.”

According to the criminal complaint and a related court document:

The employee told police that Morrell brought a bottle of liquor to the counter, placed what appeared to be a handgun next to it toward the clerk and demanded all of the money in the cash register. Police later determined the weapon was a BB gun that resembled a .45-caliber handgun.

The employee said he told Morrell he would do as told but asked him to put the gun away because his daughter was in the store.

Morrell instead went behind the counter to get the money, prompting the employee to grab the gun and punch Morrell several times in the head as the two wrestled for the weapon.

Video surveillance from inside the store showed the girl step in with an aluminum baseball bat and strike Morrell multiple times in the head as the two men tangled while the gun was on the floor. Morrell left the store with no money and no gun.

Police spotted Morrell, sporting a scrape below one eye and blood on his lips, walking several hundred feet north of the store. He resisted arrest briefly before surrendering.

Under questioning by police, Morrell denied being in the store. He said he was in the area to visit a nearby tobacco store. He explained his facial injuries were from a fight two days earlier and must have reopened Saturday night.

Morrell’s criminal history in Minnesota includes a first-degree robbery conviction in 2004.