Dramatic moment brave minimarket clerk turns tables on robber holding a kitchen knife to her stomach

This is the dramatic moment a 26-year-old minimarket cashier grabbed the knife out of her attacker's hands and chased him out of the store. 

Sayda Ventura was the sole employee working at Amaya's Mini Market in Westlake, Los Angeles, on February 9 when a man walked behind the counter and held a carving knife to her stomach. 

Ventura, a college student studying to be a nursing assistant, said the man bought deodorant and had paid her for it, but lingered when he saw a man make a large cash wire transfer just moments before. 

'He wanted to get all the money because it was a huge amount of money we were transferring,' owner Rene Amaya told ABC 7.  

Five minutes later, he returned to the store with a knife inside a plastic bag and asked Ventura for a product behind the counter. While she appeared to be grabbing it, he walked around the counter and held a knife to her stomach, according to ABC 7. 

Sayda Ventura was the sole employee working at Amaya's Mini Market in Westlake, Los Angeles, on February 9 when a man walked behind the counter and held a carving knife to her stomach

She managed to wrestle the knife away from him and chased him out of the store, telling him she'd kill him if he ever came back 

'Quiet, don't say nothing,' she recalled to her attacker, who still at large, saying to Fox 11. 'Don't move, because I’m killing you if you say something.' 

The store is equipped with pepper spray behind the counter, but Ventura didn't have time to grab it. Instead, moments later, surveillance footage catches her swiftly grabbing the knife and screaming at him. 

She began to chase him out of the store, cutting the knife up and down through the air as he ran out of the store, cowering away from the weapon. 

As he ran out. she said: 'Don't come back in here anymore, because I'll kill you if you come back,' the college student said. 

The suspect had been a paying customer just five minutes before, purchasing deodorant. But after watching another customer complete a large wire transfer, he returned to the store with a knife and demanded the money 

He told Ventura that he would kill her if she wasn't 'quiet,' she recalled 

The whole interaction lasted around 15 seconds and the suspect is still at large 

The whole interaction, she said, lasted about 15 seconds. Ventura, who had worked at the store for about a month, sustained cuts on her hands. 

After the attacker left, she called her boss Rene Amaya and the surveillance footage picked up on her destressed call as she heavily breathed and nervously told her boss what happened. 

Her boss has since called her 'brave' and 'courageous' for her actions. 

'It's really scary. I think all people [are] scared when they see knives or a gun or something like that. It’s super, super scary to me,' she said. 

After calling her boss, she notified police, who are now searching for the man. 

'I'm angry at him. I want to find him,' the college student said.