West Lebanon — Lebanon police are actively searching for the man who shot and wounded a 19-year-old McDonald’s employee in the course of robbing the West Lebanon restaurant early Monday morning.

The employee, whose name has not been released to protect the integrity of the investigation, suffered non-life-threatening injuries to the lower portion of one of his legs, Lebanon Police Chief Richard Mello said.

He was released from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center on Monday.

A McDonald’s spokesman condemned the robbery and shooting.

“We are deeply concerned about the incident that occurred in our restaurant early this morning,” Jeremy Hinton, president and director of operations of the Napoli Group, which owns and operates several McDonald’s in New Hampshire, said in an email. “We put the highest priority on ensuring the safety of our customers and employees and will continue to work closely with the police who are currently investigating this situation.”

Meanwhile, police are asking for the public’s help in identifying the suspect, who they say was wearing a red shirt or a red hooded sweatshirt and had his face and head covered when he confronted the employee with a handgun outside the restaurant around 12:30 a.m., according to a Lebanon police news release.

The suspect forced the employee, who was emptying the trash at the time, inside the restaurant and demanded money. After obtaining an undisclosed sum, the suspect pushed the employee toward a back door and shot him in the leg before leaving, the release said.

The suspect fled on foot in an unknown direction.

It is not yet known whether the suspect and the employee knew each other, Mello said.

Hinton declined to answer several follow-up questions about the incident.

Police closed the McDonald’s, located off Route 12A, for a period of time immediately following the incident.

However, a steady stream of people went in and out of the restaurant on Monday morning with little indication that a shooting had occurred.

The trash bins sit on the same side of the building where the main entrance is located and are perched behind a row of doors that conceal them. Streetlights line the entrance and parking lot.

McDonald’s has a video surveillance system, but Mello said the incident wasn’t caught on camera.

Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call the Lebanon Police Department at 603-448-1212 or the anonymous tip line at 603-448-CLUE.

Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.

Posted at 11:35 a.m. Updated at midnight on Tuesday.