Tennessee Store Clerk Charged With Murder in Shooting of Black Teen for Allegedly Stealing Beer

Dorian Harris

Screenshot: WMC Action News 5

A Memphis, Tenn., store clerk is facing first-degree murder charges after authorities say he fatally shot a 17-year-old black boy he accused of stealing beer from the convenience store.

WREG reports that 28-year-old Anwar Ghazali, a clerk at Top Stop Shop, chased Dorian Harris after the teen allegedly stole a beer, shooting the teen from behind.

Anwar Ghazali

Photo: Shelby County Sheriff’s Office

The incident happened Thursday, but to make matters worse, authorities say Ghazali didn’t even report firing his weapon at someone or bother to see if he had hit anyone, and so Dorian’s body was left where the 17-year-old fell. His body wasn’t discovered until two days later, on Saturday, near Sarah Patton’s house, a few yards away from the store.

“He didn’t have to kill him, you know?” Patton told the news station.

Patton said she heard the shot, but didn’t see either Ghazali or Dorian, so initially thought nothing of it.

She said she didn’t realize the teen’s body was near her house until authorities told her.

“I didn’t see it,” she said. “If I knew that it was back there, I would have called the folks before now.”

Ghazali, for his part, according to the report, suspected he had hit Dorian, but apparently couldn’t be assed.

“I think I shot him,” Ghazali told a witness at the store after he walked back in after the shooting, according to the report.

Ghazali later told police that he shot at Dorian several times. He is scheduled to appear before a judge Monday morning.

“It shouldn’t have happened like that,” Dorian’s grandmother Effie Fitch told WMC Action News 5. “He was a child and that was an adult. He ought to have more responsibility than that and he’s running a business.”

Family members said Dorian often stopped by the store and did odd jobs for the store owner. On the day he was killed, he had stopped by before heading to a cousin’s house, where he would have spent the night, the family said.

“If he had said something, Dorian’s life could’ve been saved. You don’t shoot nobody Thursday and here it is Saturday and you ain’t said nothing about it,” Fitch said.

“They know us. You didn’t have to do nothing but just say, ‘Dorian [is] in here picking up something,’ which that ain’t him, I don’t think. But if he did do it, like children do, why you just didn’t tell him he can’t come to the store no more?” the grieving grandmother added.

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