JOHNSTON COUNTY — Johnston County deputies are trying to find the four men who barged into a nail salon Friday night, shooting the manager and getting away with hundreds of dollars.

It happened at the Nail Tek salon at the intersection of Highway 42 and Interstate 40, not far from Garner. As two salon workers and the manager cleaned up, four masked men came into the store. Two men had guns and ordered employees to the floor.

When a robber closed the blinds, the salon's manager of the salon got up and tried to run out the back door. One of the gunmen shot him once in the chest.

"We think he was trying to protect one of the other individuals in the store by distracting the robbers' attention away from that person and toward him," said Lt. C.E. Berube of the Johnston County Sheriff's Office.

The wounded man ran to a restaurant next door to call for help.

The robbers made off with $700 cash and two cell phones. No one was able to identify the men. Deputies say the suspects are Vietnamese.

The two uninjured workers involved in the robbery reported back to work Saturday. The manager is in stable condition at WakeMed. He plans to return to work as soon as possible.