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Elderly Wal-Mart Employee Beaten By IPod Bandits

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Jun 20, 2009 7:25 pm US/Mountain

Elderly Wal-Mart Employee Beaten By IPod Bandits

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) ― An elderly Wal-Mart employee who was savagely beaten by two men stealing iPods remains in the hospital, while police say surveillance tape helped them identify the attackers.

Authorities have arrested 21-year-old Omar Belhachmi of Colorado Springs, and they are seeking 22-year-old Rashad Wilson of Fountain. A third man, Akeem Ali Thomas, 24, is accused of driving a getaway car.

The attack happened Wednesday when police say Belhachmi and Wilson approached the unnamed 66-year-old Wal-Mart employee.

The men asked the employee to open a locked case containing iPods, and when the employee did, he was punched in the face until he fell. The attackers took three iPods and fled.

Belhachmi, who also uses the last name Griffin-Belhac, faces likely charges of aggravated robbery of an at-risk adult. He's being held at the El Paso County Jail. Authorities say the men may also be responsible for Wal-Mart thefts in Colorado Springs.

Security cameras were rolling Wednesday afternoon in the Pueblo robbery. The cameras show two men walking to a clerk in the electronics department and the clerk unlocking a display case holding iPods.

The victim's nose and jaw were broken in the attack. He remained in treatment at Parkview Medical Center. The clerk's name has not been released under a Colorado law that shields victims over age 60.

Pueblo police Sgt. Eric Bravo told The (Colorado Springs) Gazette that Belhachmi told investigators the three men traveled to Pueblo to steal the iPods.