From My Fox Memphis of September 2, 2009
Clerk Shoots Would-Be Robber
No charges have been filed yet in a deadly Wednesday morning shooting in Northeast Memphis. Witnesses said a store clerk had to protect himself from a would-be robber, who was armed with a taser. Tonight, the man police say was trying to rob the store is dead.
Before crime scene tape and squad cars covered Lana's parking lot Wednesday morning, a strange looking man caught Gary Belcher's attention.
"He had the most coldest look on his face," Belcher said.
Belcher said he was picking-up trash when a man passed him and walked inside Lana's Market on Macon Road. Then, he said, he heard two gun shots. He ran into the store where he saw his friend, the store clerk, standing behind the counter.
"He had a gun in his hand and he was saying, 'help me Gary, help me.' I couldn't see the guy. At about that time, I [saw] a hand come up behind the counter, he was behind the counter and trying to grab for the gun," Belcher recalled.
Belcher said the would-be robber used a taser on the clerk before he was shot, "He tasered [him] all over his head and his back nowl"
Memphis Police said the robber later died at the hospital. Riyad Ghosheh said he's the clerk's cousin and a store owner himself. He said store owners in Memphis have no choice but to arm themselves at work. Ghosheh thinks current deterrents are not working, "If they do heavy, heavy punishment on the robbery, nothing will happen. But if he [robs] somebody the next day, a 100-dollar bond, he's out of jail. That's the problem, the punishment is not heavy."
Business is back to normal at Lana's. Belcher said he'll have no problem coming back to work. He'll just keep a look-out.
Police officers say they are still investigating this case.
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