Shopkeeper shot by robbers on Euphrates
On Monday night three men robbed a shop on Amara Avenue and today a shopkeeper was shot in broad daylight just a few blocks away. So far the police have no suspects in either case. News Five was called to the scene just moments after thirty year old Zhang Yong Li was taken to the hospital.
The sign above Heng Loon shop at one hundred and seven Euphrates Avenue reads: Neighborhood Watch At All Times, but neighbors were helpless to stop two young men from walking into the establishment and shooting the proprietor in his stomach.
Hermelinda Romero, Witness
“I only saw him in the wall with the phone and with his hands on his belly and I said, “come out, come out, give me the keys, let’s lock up so you can go to the doctor because you are injured.” He gave me the keys and he said, “lock”. So he come out and when he came out, I lock the door. I pull down the door and I lock it and that’s all I saw.”
Q: “But you said before that he was calling out for somebody?”
Hermelinda Romero
“Yes, when he was inside but I didn’t see that, I only heard that. He said, “fat boy” and I said, “”Chino” what happen?” And he never answered and I holler again and I said, “”Chino” what happen? What’s wrong?” And when I said that I heard the shot.”
According to one woman, the robbers who wore no masks, first circled the area on bicycles and later returned on foot. The woman said she did not hear any shot but heard the shopkeeper cry out for help.
Melanie Williams, Witness
“When we come we see him on the ground and he could barely talk and then he got up and then he talk. He said somebody hurry call the taxi.”
Neighbors say they recognized the robbers as the same young boys who had threatened on several occasions to hurt the Chinese man because he would not give them any bamboo paper to smoke weed.
Li received a gunshot wound to his upper abdomen and is presently in the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in a guarded condition. According to the police they are not certain at this time if anything was stolen from the shop because they have been unable to get a statement from Li due to his condition.
