Accused shoplifter slices Family Dollar employee’s neck before fleeing, Alabama cops say

A woman accused of stealing from a Family Dollar store sliced the neck of an employee who tried to stop her from fleeing, according to Alabama police.

Officers responded at 2:13 p.m. on Aug. 11 to the store and found that an employee had been “cut with a knife along the neck,” according to a statement from the Mobile Police Department.

The employee had been trying to stop a woman from leaving the store without paying, the statement says.

First responders transported the employee to a hospital, where she was in critical condition, police said.

Officers found the accused shoplifter about half a mile away and arrested her.

The woman, Takea Shackleford, 39, is charged with first-degree attempted murder and first-degree robbery, the statement says.

Shackleford is also accused of shoplifting from a Walmart in Mobile in July and injuring people as she left the store, according to police. On July 26, Shackleford took items from a Walmart without paying and then struck two people in the parking lot as she tried to flee in her vehicle, police said. She is charged with two counts of leaving the scene of an accident and one count each of reckless endangerment and theft of property in connection with that incident.

She is being held in the Mobile County Jail, according to jail records.

Mobile is about 170 miles southwest of Montgomery.

This story was originally published August 15, 2022 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Accused shoplifter slices Family Dollar employee’s neck before fleeing, Alabama cops say."