Tuesday’s fatal shooting of a convenience store clerk in Kansas City shocked even those accustomed to heartless crime.
The store clerk — a college student from Sri Lanka — was shot by a robber who waited in ambush, then stole merchandise.
Minutes later, as the clerk lay dying on the floor, a customer stepped over him, grabbed cash from the register and left without offering help.
“It’s hard to believe someone could be so cold and so disconnected from life and death,” Alvin Brooks, president of the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime, said about the customer. “It’s unbelievable what some people will stoop to. I don’t know how much lower you can get.”
Jeremy Ploeger, a spokesman for the owner of the Inner City Oil building at 5901 Swope Parkway, said the clerk had worked at the store about three months and was a senior at the University of Missouri-Kansas City studying technology. The victim’s parents live in Sri Lanka.
“A young man came to work today for a better future and he didn’t make it home,” Ploeger said. “It’s sad, really sad.”
Police said Tuesday night they were still attempting to reach relatives before releasing the victim’s name. -Kansas City.com