Herald staff

A foiled robbery at a south Everett convenience store could net a prison term for the man accused of the robbery attempt and firing a shot at a terrified clerk.

Jonathan David Cooper, 23, of Everett was charged Friday with attempted first-degree robbery and second-degree assault for allegedly trying to rob a store in the 200 block of SE Everett Mall Way.

Deputy prosecutor Mark Roe said the holdup about 2 a.m. Wednesday might have been successful if it hadn’t been for a customer who tackled the gun-wielding bandit and wrestled him to the ground.

A man walked into the store and asked for some cigarettes, police said. When the clerk turned around, the customer had a gun in his hand and demanded money. As the clerk turned to comply, "the defendant shot at her, but missed," Roe said in charging papers filed in Snohomish County Superior Court.

A 28-year-old customer, who had been about to leave the store, heard the shot and saw a man with a gun. Instead of running out of the store, the customer "decided to risk his own life and try to help foil the crime," Roe wrote.

The customer tackled Cooper from behind, Roe said, "causing the defendant to fumble the gun."

A store surveillance camera showed the customer wrestling the defendant out of the store and onto the ground, where police found them, Roe said.

The defendant told police some armed men in a van threatened him if he didn’t commit the robbery, papers said. He also said he shot to the side of the clerk in an attempt to scare her into giving him the money, according to the documents.