New London — Confronted by a masked man pointing a handgun at his face, Turyalai "Tor" Fnu reacted much as he always has during a confrontation with a belligerent customer: He kept his cool.

The 23-year-old clerk at Ravi Mart on Bank Street was behind the counter shortly after 4 a.m. Tuesday when the robbery attempt occurred.

Despite demanding money and threatening to shoot Fnu, the man later identified as 49-year-old Kirk Skinner left the store empty-handed - except for a single cigarette.

In an interview during the start of his shift Tuesday night, Fnu described five minutes of chaos in which he said his defensive instincts took over.

"He came into the store and pointed a gun at me," Fnu said. "He started yelling, 'Get on the floor. Get on the floor.'"

Fnu stood his ground, he said, in an attempt to calm the man down and start a conversation as a distraction. It's not the first time he's seen a gun, he said. He had seen them in Afghanistan, where he was born and raised.

"I said, 'What are you talking about? What do you want?'" Fnu said of his exchange with Skinner. "He says, 'You don't see the gun?' I just told him I'm not getting on the floor. This store is my responsibility and I can't let you take anything."

The response, Fnu said, seemed to confuse the man who continued to yell. Meanwhile, a woman and man who were in the store at the time of the robbery were also yelling for Fnu get to the ground.

Not getting his way, the masked man walked behind the counter to confront Fnu and again threatened to shoot him. Fnu blocked the register, dodged a blow and grabbed the gun in the man's hand at one point.

"I was just thinking about my store, me and the people in the store - to keep them safe, I kept him busy with me," he said. "Once you lose your confidence you lose everything. I didn't start fighting. … I just tried talking.

Fnu said he even dared the man to shoot him, something he said unexpectedly served to de-escalate the situation. The man stopped aiming the gun at him and instead grabbed a pack of cigarettes and proceeded to walk back around the counter, where he removed his mask.

Skinner showed Fnu the gun, telling him, "This is no joke. This is the first time nobody gave me the money."

Fnu recognized the man as a regular, though he did not know his name. The man started making light of the situation, sharing a few laughs with the two customers and asking Fnu not to call police and to erase the video footage of the 5-minute ordeal.

Fnu said he played along but remained focused on the fact that the man had pocketed a pack of cigarettes. He asked him to hand them over.

The man pulled out a single cigarette out of the pack before leaving the store.

Fnu said he's been threatened at other times and knows from experience that starting a fight makes a bad situation even worse. There is also the fact many of the store's customers, including some troublemakers, are regulars, people he would unavoidably have to see again.

"It's not worth it," he said. "I try to keep a good connection with everybody. You can't make problems, you treat people with respect."

New London Acting Police Chief Peter Reichard said he would advise anyone in a similar situation to give the perpetrator what he demanded, especially if a weapon is involved.

"Possessions are replaceable, human lives are not," Reichard said.

Reichard said a clerk should instead concentrate on getting a good description of the perpetrator and any vehicles involved before setting off an alarm and calling 911.

Court records show police were not notified of the robbery until about 7 a.m., three hours after the robbery attempt. Fnu said the man had threatened him with harm if he called police and he was unable to reach the owner until later. There was also the fact, he said, that he was busy with work at the store.

New London police arrested Skinner at his apartment on Tuesday. Charged with attempted first-degree robbery and criminal possession of a firearm, he appeared Tuesday in New London Superior Court. A judge ordered him held in lieu of a $49,000 bond under a mental health watch. He was appointed a public defender and is due back in court on Dec. 4.

Police said there was no evidence connecting the woman in the store to the robbery.

g.smith@theday.com

Twitter: @SmittyDay