3 Gunmen Rob Supermarket, Attack Employee

DANA POINT — Three gun-toting men stormed into a Ralphs grocery store and assaulted an employee before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of cash, Orange County sheriff’s deputies said Thursday.

Investigators said that about 11 p.m. Wednesday, three armed robbers entered the store in the 34200 block of Pacific Coast Highway while another man waited in a stolen gray Jeep Cherokee.

Once inside the store, the men ordered four customers and a supervisor to the floor and demanded money from a cashier, investigators said. After emptying the register, one of the men pistol-whipped the supervisor and told him to open the store’s safe, authorities said.

The four men took an undisclosed amount of cash and fled in the Cherokee, and investigators said they are continuing to search for their whereabouts. The Cherokee, carrying license plate 2JCS713, was stolen in Santa Ana within 90 minutes of the crime, deputies said.