Police: Store employee shot during robbery in Juniata Park

A man is in critical condition after police say he was shot during a robbery at a store in Philadelphia’s Juniata Park neighborhood.

The incident occurred on the 1500 block of East Lycoming Street inside the Brito Mini Market just after 8:30 a.m.

Police say the 30-year-old clerk Roberto Uceta was opening the market when he was set upon by three masked bandits, one of whom apparently shot him, striking Uceta in and under his right arm.

Hector Rivera is one of the store’s owners.

“I ran down here. I didn’t know what was going on. They called me and said, ‘Yo Roberto got shot!’ And I said, ‘What?’," he said.

Customers describe the market at the corner of East Lycoming and O Street as particularly popular and the clerk as particularly friendly.

As police scoured security camera footage for clues to the bandits’ identities, a store co-owner who declined to give his name said he believes the same trio had hit Brito’s 10 days earlier.

“Mother’s Day they actually stole $900. This time they didn’t take money,  but they’re the same people, and one of our guys got shot," he explained.

Police confirm that Mother’s Day robbery and their own YouTube channel features the same store being robbed at gunpoint in June of 2013 and then hit again in December of that year.

Longtime residents say this neighborhood is dangerous and getting worse.

No arrests have been made.