Police are investigating the armed robbery of a Little Rock convenience store that was the third event involving a gun at the store since November.
Officers responded at 11:37 p.m. Saturday to 3323 Fair Park Blvd., a building shared by Fair Park Food Mart and Shark's Fish & Chicken. Banshar Gani, the owner of the Food Mart, told police that three men had entered the store and that one of them had walked behind the counter with a handgun, according to a police report.
Gani, 34, initially refused to open the cash register for the armed man. When the man pressed the gun against Gani's head and threatened to kill him, Gani opened the register, the report says.
The three men fled with about $100, Gani said Tuesday. He said he recognized each of the men as regular customers. The armed man is described as black, 5-foot-3, 130 pounds and between 16 and 19 years old, according to the report. He wore a black hoodie and black jeans in the robbery.
Detailed descriptions of the other two men were unavailable.
Saturday's robbery was not the first at the store. An employee was knocked unconscious in April 2013 when he confronted four men who had stolen a 30-pack of juice, police reported.
Police have been called to the store seven times in the past 18 months -- twice for robberies, twice for auto thefts, once for a burglary and twice for shootings.
Police spokesman Lt. Sidney Allen said that if Gani was allowing people to loiter or break the law on store property, it could be shut down as a public nuisance by the city's Criminal Abatement Program. But other than its location, Allen said, the business doesn't appear to be connected to the crimes.
"We cannot penalize a business for being the victim of a robbery or for people not related to the business breaking into cars," he said.
Gani, who has run the store for nearly three years and works behind the counter at night, said he feels safe. The store has surveillance cameras and bars on its windows to deter crime, and Gani said he has no plans for additional security.
"To be honest with you, it's a safe place. But you know, people try to make it like trash," he said.
A man was shot outside the store the afternoon of June 24 while he was watching two other men fight in the parking lot, police reported. One of the men pulled a gun during the fight and fired multiple shots, striking 35-year-old Deshaun Hollis twice.
Gani said Tuesday that the men were friends and that they were arguing over marijuana. He suggested that Saturday's robbery was also drug-related.
"I guess they needed something to smoke," he said. "But they won't ever come back. They know I know them."
In November, a 22-year-old man was robbed and shot outside the store, according to police. Wieland Beck had agreed to meet a Craigslist seller there to purchase two laptop computers. Instead, two people robbed and shot him. Antonio Hampton, 17, and Demontae Berry, 16, were each charged as adults with attempted murder in the shooting.
Late Tuesday, no arrests had been made in Saturday's robbery, and Gani didn't expect the suspects to be caught. He said that his surveillance cameras didn't capture a clear image of the suspects and that police were unable to recover fingerprints from the scene.
"It's just one of those things," Gani said of the robbery, shrugging his shoulders.
Metro on 07/16/2014