2 Fellas Step Over Heart Attack Victim and Rob Him - Colin Flaherty Commentary Video "‘It totally broke my heart’: Co-worker talks of clerk who was robbed by teens after suffering heart attack" black crime hostility robbery. CCTV camera footage
POSTED 4:58 PM, SEPTEMBER 11, 2018, BY STEVE KIGGINS, UPDATED AT 09:45PM, SEPTEMBER 11, 2018
AUBURN, Wash. – A gas station clerk who suffered a heart attack and then was robbed by two teenage suspects is clinging to life at a local hospital, his co-workers said Tuesday.
Video surveillance shows 34-year-old Zarif Kelada collapse after telling two teens that they needed to pay for pepperoni sticks they opened and were eating in the store. But instead of calling for help for the collapsed man, the teens nearly walk by while he’s unconscious on the floor, steal merchandise and the cash out of the register.
The video shows one of the teenagers grab a pepperoni stick and begin eating it soon after walking in, then grabbing another and giving it to the other teen. The man then comes to the counter to buy something, and it appears the clerk then charged him for the pepperoni sticks.
An argument breaks out, and one of the teenagers hands the clerk a dollar. The clerk gets upset, talks to the teenagers, then turns around and stumbles into a display before collapsing to the floor. Investigators say the adult man was not involved in the incident.
What happens next is mind-boggling for detectives.
“They (each teen) jump over the counter and they take all the money out of the drawer, steal more merchandise and they leave,” said Commander Steve Stocker with Auburn Police.
Investigators say they have identified who these suspects are, though they are not yet in custody.
Police say several minutes pass before a bystander enters the store and calls 911 when they find Kelada on the floor. It’s those precious minutes that the clerk’s co-workers believe could have been used calling paramedics and giving him the best chance to survive.
