Family: Murder of convenience store clerk 'insane' and 'inhumane'
WFAA
Posted on January 21, 2014 at 8:58 AM
Updated yesterday at 1:48 AM
GARLAND — Police in Garland say a store clerk found dead Tuesday morning inside a convenience store was shot multiple times.
According to investigators, the victim was found by a delivery man inside a 7-Eleven store at 2509 Firewheel Parkway just after 3:30 a.m. Police say the victim was Yosef Tulu, a 31-year-old man from Dallas.
Garland police said surveillance cameras captured the shooting, but the shooter's face was covered. Video shows him enter the store with a rifle and then moments later run out with a bag in hand. Police say the gunman robbed the store and fled the scene.
"I don’t know how to express it; it's really hard. I don’t have any words," said Andualen Shoro, Tulu's brother-in-law.
Shoro told News 8 that Tulu's family and bride-to-be are in his homeland of Ethiopia. He said Tulu was the quiet type, and very smart.
Shoro described the surveillance video and the killing as "brutal." He can’t understand why someone would hurt such a “nice person.”
"He gave him everything. I don’t know why he came back and shoot him. It's insane... it’s inhumane," Shoro said.
Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for the Dallas-based convenience store chain, released a statement Tuesday saying the company was "shocked and saddened over the random shooting" and that they are doing "everything [they] can to work closely with police during the investigation, and [...] hope for a quick apprehension of the suspect(s) involved."
She said Tulu was working alone at the time of the shooting, and store staffing is decided by each store operator or franchisee based on customer traffic.
Friends of Tulu described him as hardworking and intelligent.
Abeba Woldemeeskel said her best friend and coworker came to the United States five years ago and started working at that 7-Eleven soon after.
"Never -- this is a very nice neighborhood, we never see bad customers, we don't have any bad customers," Woldemeeskel said. "He's very friendly for everybody - for his coworkers, with his boss, with his customers - always laughing, he is happy. We can not believe how this happened to him."
Tulu lived with two roommates in Garland and would regularly send money to his family back home in Ethiopia.
If you have any information regarding the suspect or the robbery, contact Garland Crime Stoppers at 972-272-8477.
