Detroit Free Press Praises Black Gas-Station Executioner-Robbers in Highland Park, MI, as “Bold,” While Refusing to Run Security Photo; Secret Suspect

Caught, in Spite of Freep
By Nicholas Stix

Ninety-two-point-eight percent black Highland Park, Michigan is not to be confused with the eponymous tony, 0.4 percent black suburb of Chicago in Illinois.
 

The WXYZ Video with the Images the Detroit Free Press Refused to Show the Public



 

Highland Park shocked by bold gas station robberies
January 19, 2012 |
7 Comments
By Tammy Stables Battaglia
Detroit Free Press

Twice in recent days, gunmen lured clerks from behind the safety of bulletproof glass to rob them at Highland Park gas stations -- leading to the fatal shooting of a clerk Wednesday morning.

As Highland Park police search for the robbers, service station clerks in metro Detroit said they are shocked by the calculating viciousness of the thieves.
No arrests had been made by Wednesday evening, and Highland Park police released few details.

In a news release, police said they didn't know how many people were involved in the shooting at the Citgo station at Hamilton and Glendale or which way they escaped.
 

Clerk lured out

Clerk Mohamad Bazzi, 41, of Dearborn, who was at the station later Wednesday morning, said a man entered at 3:25 a.m., pulled a bottle of juice from the store's cooler and dropped it by the front door. He walked out without paying, leaving the mess on the floor.

Bazzi said the clerk grabbed a mop and flicked a switch behind his counter to activate a lock on the service station's front door before he went out to mop. But unbeknown to him, another man wearing a mask was crouched by the front of the building holding the front door slightly ajar with a stick to keep it from locking.
As soon as the clerk started mopping, the masked man ran into the store and shot him twice in the legs and once in the chest, Bazzi said.

The robbers stole a few hundred dollars from two cash registers and even took money from the clerk as he was dying on the floor, Bazzi said.

"They took the money from his pockets, man," Bazzi told a gas supplier who called the station to offer condolences. "It's terrible. I've never seen stuff like that."

The victim, a 59-year-old married father of three, died at the station, Bazzi said.
The Dearborn man was retired from one of the Detroit Three and had been working the night shift for the past three years.
 

A life is spared

About a week ago, a clerk at the BP at Glendale and Woodward was held up the same way, said clerk Yazid Alaudi, 25, of Hamtramck.

"We got robbed a few days ago, but he let (the clerk) live," Alaudi said. "They put the gun to his head, but they didn't shoot him."

Police would not release information about that case.

Alaudi said he used to step out momentarily from his safety booth to make coffee or tend to other business before last week's robbery. That has changed -- and Alaudi, who has a concealed weapons permit, said he now keeps his .40-caliber handgun visible from his front pocket.

"You don't expect someone to come in with a gun and shoot you for a few hundred dollars," Alaudi said. "Now, I lock the doors, have the gun, (and) stay there until morning so you're safe."

Anyone with information is asked to call the Highland Park Police Department at 313-252-0050, ext. 315 or Crime Stoppers at 800-773-2587 (800-SPEAK-UP).
 
• Matt Fletcher • Top commenter • Wayne State University
There was a great still photo of the robber gotten from the store secruity video. LOVE the way the freep left that out of the story. That's our new politically correct news reporting. No descriptions, no pictures of assailants. 1984 is here folks.

This is the first of about 12 that will be killed this year. I kept count last year and the average is about one per month in Michigan. I guess 12 x 50 states would give the national average...about 600. The party store owners should get together and put up a stink about it. Maybe put up a website with a counter.
• Reply • 1 • Unlike
• Follow Post • 7 hours ago

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POLICE: "Person of interest" in custody in the killing of gas station clerk in Highland Park
Deadly shooting in Highland Park
1/18/2012
Last Updated: 5 hours and 39 minutes ago
WXYZ.com
By Kimberly Craig

HIGHLAND PARK (WXYZ) - As the family of Hassan Hussein prepares for his burial on Friday, Highland Park Police are holding a man they consider a "person of interest" in his murder.

Hussein, 59, was gunned down during a robbery inside the Citgo Gas station where he worked at an overnight clerk.

The daughters of Hussein, who also worked for Chrysler for 35 years before retiring, say their father was a loving, generous man who often sent money to relatives in need who still live his homeland of Yemen.

Hesham Alqaatabi, 14, tells Action News how hard it is to believe his grandfather is gone. "Very nice man. If you needed anything from him, he’ll give you anything and well respected”, said Alqaatabi.

Investigators have not ruled out that the armed robber and an accomplice in Hussein's murder are also responsible for other recent hold-ups.

About two weeks ago, Younise Missed was robbed after a man walked into the store area and dropped a glass bottle of juice. The bottle shattered and the man left.

Missed works as a clerk at the BP gas station on Woodward Avenue in Highland Park.
It's located about a mile away from the gas station where Hussein was killed.

Soon after Missed exited the locked bulletproof area to mop up the mess made by the shattered juice bottle, he says a man came in and put a gun to his head.

“It’s like a nightmare when you got a gun to your head and he’s demanding all these things and it’s really really scary", said Missed who complied with the armed robber and is thankful that a person of interest is now in custody.

That was about two weeks ago and then around 3:30 Wednesday morning, at the Citgo Gas station where 59-year-old Hussein worked, a man wearing dark clothing and a hat, can be seen on surveillance video, banging on the door of the locked gas station, motioning for Hussein to buzz him inside the store.

Once inside the man also dropped a bottle of juice and left.

When it appeared the man was gone, Hussein walked out of the area enclosed by bulletproof glass to clean up the mess left behind. What Hussein didn't know was that a second person used a stick to leave the door slightly propped open.

The gunman is then seen on surveillance video quickly opening the front door with his gun in the air.

It appears there was a brief struggle before Hussein was shot to death.

The gunman is then seen grabbing cash out of the registers.

Rene' Chambers owns a nearby hair and nail salon tells Action News that Hussein was very careful when he let people inside the store late at night.

“If he’s like behind the counter he would wait until he goes back behind the counter and then he would buzz you in but he would never let you in if he wasn’t behind the counter", says Chambers. “It’s so bad out here now though. That’s why you have to be buzzed in and out over here".

Loved ones say Hassan Hussein retired from Chrysler after 35 years and about a year ago took the midnight shift at the gas station to help his daughters who are in college.

Hussein lived in Dearborn and leaves behind a wife, four daughters and nine grandchildren.

Friday morning, Highland Park Police plan on holding a press conference to discuss the person of interest they are holding and other elements of the case.

A second-person continues to be sought.

Anyone with information on either crime is urged to call Highland Park Police or Crime Stoppers at 1(800)SPEAK-UP.