An employee of a west Medford Minute Market responded to a robber with a baseball bat, pushing the suspect from the store in time for Medford police to arrive.

In the late afternoon Oct. 28, David Dustin Flowers entered the Minute Market on Table Rock Road and dispensed a soda for himself, according to Medford police documents obtained by the Mail Tribune.

Flowers consumed the soda without paying for it, then approached the register and demanded money. The clerk at the register asked Flowers if he was joking. When he responded he was not, the clerk asked Flowers to leave the store and was shoved in response, police said.

The first clerk spoke to a second clerk, asking for help. The second clerk responded with a baseball bat and a metal rod, pushing Flowers out the door, according to a police probable cause affidavit.

After police arrested Flowers, he reportedly confessed to police he had attempted to rob the store and confirmed the store clerk pushed him out with a metal baseball bat, but he denied pushing the first store clerk, according to the affidavit.

When the Mail Tribune went to the Minute Market, both of the clerks who were on duty during the robbery attempt said they had been instructed by Minute Market corporate staff not to speak to the press about the incident.

Flowers was charged with second-degree robbery and misdemeanor counts of second-degree harassment and third-degree theft.

Flowers was held in the Jackson County Jail Friday without bail. His criminal record stretches back to 2009, with convictions that include robbery, theft, felony possession of methamphetamine and being a felon in possession of a weapon.

Reach Mail Tribune reporter Morgan Rothborne at mrothborne@rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4487. Follow her on Twitter @MRothborne.