PINE BLUFF, AR – Another convenience store clerk has been shot and killed during a late night robbery. This time in Pine Bluff.
Police say the shooting happened at the Big Red Convenience Store on the corner on 6th and Belmont around 8:45pm Tuesday.
The victim has been identified as M.D. Islam, 26, formerly of Ozone Park, NY.
Pine Bluff police officers say a customer called them after finding the cash register open, blood behind the counter, and clerk M.D. Islam lying right on the floor lifeless.
He'd only been working at the store for a week.
"He was working very good and the customers liked him. He was good at customer service," Mohammad Alam, the owner, said.
Alam said Islam came to Pine Bluff from New York. He hired the 26-year-old because he knew his family in Bangladesh,where both are from.
"Did you have to make that call to his family?" I asked.
"I called his dad and his wife and they're crying and they say please send the body to our country," Alam said.
The store has cameras but they didn't capture a thing. That's because last week, there was a power outage. When that happens, you have to manually turn on the surveillance system. Unfortunately, no one did it.
So police are just hoping the backup system got something to get a description.
"We work hard. We don't bother anybody. We just support our family. We make money and pay bills for our family," Alam said.
Last Saturday night in North Little Rock, 29-year-old Akiya Egeston was killed during a robbery of the EZ Mart on MacArthur Drive. Police believe that one of the suspects in that robbery was also involved in the robbery of a Jacksonville gas station Sunday morning.
"Please just stop this kind of thing, killing innocent people," Alam said.
Anyone with information should call the Pine Bluff Police Detective Division at 870-730-2090. A $1,000 reward is available for information leading to the identification and arrest of the suspect or suspects. To text anonymous tips to detectives, text to 274637 then put “PBPD” in the message.
