Posted on 08/17/2019 8:13:56 PM PDT by Tired of Taxes
A jury found a grocery clerk guilty of killing a 17-year-old boy who ran out of the store with a beer he didn't pay for in Memphis, Tennessee, in a case that had sparked protests, authorities said.
Anwar Ghazali was convicted of second-degree murder after a four-day trial, Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said Friday.
"This defendant took it upon himself to be the judge and jury and the executioner over a $2 beer," prosecutor Lora Fowler said, according to CNN affiliate WMC.
The shooting happened in March 2018, after Dorian Harris walked out of the Top Stop Shop with a beer without paying, Weirich said.
Security video of the incident played in court shows that Ghazali, while behind the counter dealing with another customer, pulled out a handgun and pointed it at Harris. He then ran outside to follow the teen and fired several times.
Afterward, he returned to the store and told a witness, "I think I shot him." He did not call the police, and neither did any other customer inside the store, WMC reported.
Harris was shot at least three times and was left to bleed out, Fowler said. His body was found two days later in a yard near the store with gunshots in the back of his thigh, Weirich said.
Ghazali's defense attorney, Blake Ballin, told CNN in an email that Ghazali maintains he acted recklessly that night but his intention was never to harm Harris.
He said they were pleased that the jury rejected the prosecution's argument that this was a calculated and premeditated murder motivated by the theft of a beer. That would have come with a potential life sentence.
Ghazali is expected to be sentenced on September 23.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
The scumbag knew he was stealing. Stealing is illegal. There should be consequences for doing illegal things, and this POS suffered the ultimate consequence.
He won't steal again.
Yeah. It's just coldhearted to believe that someone has a greater right to your property than you have to his life.
ML/NJ
At the root, it was first a racial crime where the black kid stole a beer from a hated paki merchant better
The shooter made a fundamental mistake.He didn’t follow and dispose of the body properly.
So much wrong in one incident...
Kid wrong to steal beer.
Underaged kid wanting to drink beer.
Kid running away when asked to stop.
Shopkeeper shooting kid in back as he runs away. Major stupid move.
Kid did selfish thing for selfish reason. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
As a jury member, I would vote to convict the shopkeeper, but suggest the lightest sentence possible under the law.
A good example; “play with fire and you’re gonna get burned”.
‘Blake Ballin, told CNN in an email that Ghazali maintains he acted recklessly that night but his intention was never to harm Harris.’
of course...why would anyone think he meant harm to someone when he discharged a firearm in the general direction of that someone...?
‘i still have to say the theif did deserve some sort of serious punishment, but maybe not death’
maybe not death; maybe...?
Two people made seriously stupid choices here.
One paid with his life for his stupid choice, the other is going to jail, for his.
At the end of the day, that’s what happened. It sucks all around.
The Kid messed with someone he shouldn’t have messed with. Doesn’t make it right, but it is what it is. What he “may have done” before, and “might do” later is moot now.
It all comes down to this; raise your kids properly, teach them NOT to steal, not to be thugs and delinquents, and there’s a better than average chance they’ll make it safely into adulthood to lead productive lives.
I grew up lower working middle class, North Philly rowhome kid. Without getting too personal, times were really hard in our home through health circumstances with my old man.
But us neighborhood kids - we didn’t steal from the local shop owners; they LIVED in OUR neighborhood. They knew us, we knew them, and they were our parents’ friends.
Times were hard; we and they knew it, but there was NEVER a time when a neighbor went without a loaf of bread, lunchmeat, a gallon of milk, and a carton of eggs for the kids’ breakfast.
That’s something that’s missing now. Glaringly missing.
Dying and killing over a can of beer... it’s pathetically sad and stupid any way you look at it... and it’s pathetically sad and stupid as well, that we’re so far away from when I grew up, where the corner store owner would give a kid a loaf of bread and some eggs to take home to Mom to help her feed her family.
Cold-hearted. Both will meet in the afterlife in hell...
‘On the store’s balance sheet, those lawyer bills and the lost income while in prison just might exceed $2.00.’
the balance sheet will show a reduction of an minor inventory item with no offset in cash; the P&L is where the real action would be, with the outlandish legal expenses, with the corresponding cash outlay...though the store would make out with a lessening of payroll liability,and the retention of that cash...
Yep, in Texas theft/mischief after dark or under other circumstances allows for deadly force.
Wait, a Muslim selling alcoholic beverages? Isn’t that against Allah?
Who is the best candidate?
lol
Great post.
The last sentence especially.
Times have changed my friend.
Even things that others don’t notice, I do.
Every kid’s celebration in my family now and for a while has been in some fancy, stuffy, expensive joint when in the old days it was in the back yard with cheap food, cheap soda and cheap beer.
And those were the best times of my life.
Too many have lost sight of what really matters.
You Philly kids were tough. Had a vicious mafia in those parts at the time too.
But people cared about each other and looked out for each other. In the new poor areas, not even close.
“..But people cared about each other and looked out for each other....”
That, right there, is the key thing.
We were ALL in hard times, and we knew it. But mom and dad NEVER let the kids see it as something to hold them back, or down.
“..in the old days it was in the back yard with cheap food, cheap soda and cheap beer....”
My back yard was 16x16; a little patch of grass, some cement on the walkway and steps up to the alley. But we had little hibachi or kettle grills to cook up some hot dogs or hamburger.
It was the best stuff I ever tasted. And I knew every neighbor on my street, and most of the next street over.
I miss it. It’s like a piece of me that’s been torn out.
This is why we have laws against vigilantism. People taking the law into their own hands. The thief was punished for his act by a vigilante. The vigilante was punished for his by the law.
There are two good reasons not to break the law: one for what the law will do if it catches you. Another for what the vigilante will do if one catches you. The thief may have considered the first but probably not the second.
Me too!
Knew everybody.
Wow you’re bringing back memories :)
I have been at my new house for 9 months now and can tell you the names of two neighbors.
And a few that left nasty notes on my car for parking in front of their house :)
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