ST. LOUIS - A memorial is growing for a clerk shot and killed during an armed robbery at a St. Louis convenience store. The victim came to the United States from Ethiopia to avoid persecution, now eight months later he is the victim of a senseless shooting.
At the corner of Chippewa and Louisiana, stuffed animals and notes replace police officers and crime scene tape.
"I saw him the day before," said friend Brandon Baker. "I got a text message saying that he had got killed and I was just devastated."
Baker knew the victim, Abdulrauf Kadir because he works across the street at a barbershop. Police say Antonio Muldrew shot Kadir in the head and chest killing him inside the store Sunday afternoon.
Baker says Kadir was a positive man who talked about his family.
"He didn't know what was really going on around here he just came to work and support his family," said Baker.
Kadir was working two jobs at the time of his death. One to support him in the United States, and one to send money back to Ethiopia. He was an Ethiopian refugee and was afraid he would be killed if he stayed. Kadir had been in St. Louis since November.
"He had spent years in fact trying to survive over there and he finally gets to the United States and sadly eight months later he's dead," said Anna Crosslin with the International Institute.
She says they were helping Kadir get his wife and two kids to the United States. She says refugees go through safety training when they arrive, but there's no way to protect against senseless killings.
"Working at a store on a Sunday afternoon at 3:15 pm should have been a lot safer then this case it turned out to be," she said.
"It says that St. Louis we've got a lot of growing up to do," said Baker about the shooting. "It don't give nobody else no invitation to want to come over here you know what I am saying if everybody come here to get killed."
Prosecutors charged Muldrew with the murder and is being held on a $1 million cash-only bond.
If you would like to help the Kadir family, visit the International Institute's donation page, and click the green "Donate Now" button half-way down.
