Detectives in Rancho Cucamonga are searching for the robbers who stole from a jewelry store over the weekend and pistol-whipped the owner when she called police for help.
The owner, who did not want to be named or show her face, told NBC4 she was working at Gemma's Jewelry around 2:40 on Saturday afternoon when the robbers walked in.
A surveillance camera in the store captured the terrifying scene in photos and on video.
The robbers took thousands of dollars in jewelry, without regard for the other people in the store, the owner said.
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"We have an employee and a customer inside the store and they don’t care at all," she told NBC4.
"I was scared to see my employee yelling and in a big shock when he pulled out the gun," she said of the robber.
She decided to hit the alarm on her watch, triggering a police response to the store. But that made the robbers angry -- and one of them hit her across the face with the gun, leaving her with a serious head injury.
"The moment when they hit me and I was bleeding a lot, my mind was not super clear," she said. "He was ready to kill me," and she thought she was going to die.
Days later, the store is trying to get back to normal, as police search for the two men involved. The owner has headaches and some scars from that traumatic moment.
"They have to be in jail," she said.
The San Bernadino County Sheriff’s Rancho Cucomonga station is investigating, and asks that anyone with information contact them.
