LONGTOWN, Tenn. –A convenience store clerk in Fayette County is recovering from a brutal knife attack Sunday morning and Deputies are looking for who’s responsible.

They’re hoping the images caught on the store’s security camera will help catch the guy.

Joyce Sanders is a cook at the Country Cafe inside the Longtown Shell Station at the Highway 59 exit off Interstate 40.

“On the ten o’clock Channel 3 News at ten o’clock, was the first time I heard about it,” said Joyce Sanders.

She was shocked to learn a night clerk was brutally stabbed Sunday morning during an armed robbery.

“He’s a nice guy. He meets me every morning when I come in the door. He speaks to me every morning, and if I need any help doing anything, he’s right there,” said Sanders.

Security camera video showed a man in camouflage, wearing a bandanna, holding a knife and forcing the clerk to empty the cash register.

But the robber gets caught off guard when the clerk pulls a club and starts swinging.

During a struggle, the robber stabbed the clerk seven times.

The robber’s mask got pulled down, and the security camera captured a good picture of the suspect.

Though stabbed multiple times, the clerk was able to call 9-1-1.

“That’s a rather violent thing to do to stab someone. That’s a rather “hands on” act. So to do it multiple times, it was definitely a very violent act,” said Deputy Chief Ray Garcia with the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.

The suspect fled the store and is believed to have gotten into a red Pontiac Grand Am with Mississippi license plates.

Deputies believe there was a person inside the getaway vehicle waiting for the suspect.

Monday, it was back to business as usual at the Longtown Shell.

Martha Taylor, a cook, was preparing lunch but couldn’t stop thinking about the terrible crime.

“That was sad, that was sad. It was very sad the way he did him, and he didn’t have to do it, stab him the way he did,” she said.

She hopes justice will quickly be served.

“I hope they catch him, and he gets what he deserves,” said Taylor.

The good news is the clerk is recovering!

If you know who the suspect is, you are urged to call the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office at 901-466-3456.