Robber shoots Indian-origin store clerk, calls him terrorist

The gunman demanded money from the clerk, who is of Indian descent, and led him just before midnight Saturday into a back room at Bottlenecks Food and Drink Shop in Grand Rapids, reported WXMI-TV. The manager said the gunman also called the clerk a terrorist and a member of ISIS.

“I used to kill people like you in Iraq with no problem”, the gunman told the victim, the shop’s manager told Fox 17.

The clerk, named Tony, was prepping a liquor order when a masked man barged through the back door and pointed a rifle at him.

MLive.com reports that Tony was released from the hospital on Sunday (December 13) and that Grand Rapids police confirmed his report to the manager about racist abuse. Police only have a vague description of the assailant.

Instead of killing the clerk instantly, the bullet traveled through his cheek, according to WOOD-TV. He was shot in the cheek, and the man fired two more shots that missed before leaving with the money.

“He handled it really well. he did what he was supposed to do in a robbery situation, and after, i think he was very fearless for doing what he did and calling the cops himself”, said the store’s manager.

Gurleen Kaur, 23, whose father owns Bottlenecks Food and Drink Shop, told the paper she can’t be sure of what motivated the gunman, but his actions have left residents – particularly those with Indian heritage – on edge.

Both police and the store’s owners said the clerk responded bravely to the gunman – who the owner’s daughter believes targeted the employee, who is Punjabi, because of his ethnicity. “This could’ve been much, much worse given the apparent intent of the suspect”, Dixon told MLive.

The store manager wasn’t there at the time of the robbery, but said the clerk told her what happened. He said they will need to investigate further to determine if the incident was indeed a hate crime.

“If the victim had not fought off the suspect, then this could’ve been a much more serious incident”, he continued. “We’re not associated with anything like that, and it’s unfair that we have to live in that fear”. “Like I grew up here and a lot of my Punjabi friends did”, the manager said. You shouldn’t specifically be going for one race.