Heroic grandmother, 59, is shot dead by mugger at Texas Cracker Barrel where she worked for 34 years after she tried to stop co-worker from getting robbed outside the restaurant

A grandmother was shot dead Saturday morning at the restaurant she worked at for the past 34 years after she tried to help a co-worker who had just gotten to work escape a gunman who was trying to rob them outside.

Robin Baucom, 59, was shot in the torso and rushed to the hospital in critical condition, where she later died, according to Harris County deputies.

The incident happened at a Cracker Barrel on North Freeway in Houston after Buacom’s colleague arrived at about 6.15am, KTRK reports. 

Deputies say the co-worker was suddenly approached by a man in the passenger seat of a 2018 or newer metallic gray Dodge Charger. The man allegedly got out of the car and tried to grab the employee’s purse.

Baucom, a manager at the restaurant who was already inside, let her employee in and pushed back on the door to stop the man from entering. He then pulled out a gun and shot Baucom.

Authorities are still searching for the shooter. Baucom is survived by a husband, three kids and three grandkids, according to KHOU.

Robin Baucom, 59, was a manager at a Cracker Barrel in Houston, where she had worked for 34 years until Saturday

She was shot in the torso as she tried to let an employee who was being robbed into the store

Photos released by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office show a suspect clad in all-black and the metallic gray Dodge Charger used in the shooting

The identity of Baucom’s co-worker is not yet known.

‘Our condolences go out to her family. Sad to think these victims were simply starting their day, working,’ said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez on Twitter, along with surveillance photos of a suspect, clad in all black, and his getaway vehicle. 

Family and friends gathered outside the Southern food restaurant for a vigil on Sunday.

Mourners were seen holding balloons and hugging each other at the scene of the deadly shooting.  

‘It was such a senseless way to lose her life. She was just trying to go to work to make a living,’ Robin’s sister Gail Baucom said through tears in an interview with KTRK.

Mourners gathered at the Cracker Barrell on  North Freeway in Houston on Sunday

She was just trying to go to work to make a living,’ said Robin’s sister Gail Baucom, above

Robin’s daughter Tina said her mom started working at the chain when she was in kindergarten

‘She would have done anything in the world to protect her employees of any of us,’ Tina said

Gail said Robin worked at the restaurant for more than three decades and described it as Robin’s second home. 

‘She is our hero and we hope she will be remembered as a hero because she lost her life trying to protect her employees and Cracker Barrel. She was always taking care of business wherever she was needed,’ Gail wrote about her sister, according to KPRC. 

‘She would have done anything in the world to protect her employees of any of us,’ Robin’s daughter Tina said at Sunday’s vigil.

‘When I was starting kindergarten, she started at Cracker Barrel part-time. She would buy me back-to-school clothes. It was supposed to be a couple of months. Thirty-four years later, a heart attack, and she’s back at it.’  

Baucom’s brother Billy Crumpton said: ‘The greatest love a person can have is giving their life for another person; and that’s exactly what she did.

‘She came to work like she always does. Car drove up there and stole a purse from the worker she was letting come in the store. She pushed the worker into the store and was wrestling with the guy trying to get him away so she could shut the door and lock it. And he stuck a gun up there and shot her,” Crumpton told KRIV, adding that the pair were close.

The chain said it’s ‘focused on supporting our manager’s family, her fellow employees, and local law enforcement’

No arrests have been made in Saturday’s shooting, though police have released surveillance shots of a suspect and his vehicle. Above, constables outside the Cracker Barrel

Cracker Barrel acknowledged Baucom’s death in a statement released to the media.

‘We can confirm that there was a criminal shooting at our Houston store on North Freeway prior to opening Saturday morning which resulted in our store’s associate manager sustaining fatal injuries as she protected other employees from harm. 

‘All of Cracker Barrel is solely focused on supporting our manager’s family, her fellow employees, and local law enforcement as we grapple with this tragedy and grieve,’ the company said in a statement provided to DailyMail.com.

The North Freeway store will be closed for at least a week and employees will be paid as usual, the company said.