Surveillance video shows what led up to fatal shooting inside Bronx cannabis dispensary
MOUNT HOPE, The Bronx (WABC) -- Surveillance video from inside a cannabis dispensary in the Bronx shows what led up to the fatal shooting of an alleged armed attempted robber early Wednesday.
The video shows 23-year-old Romel Carey enter the Top Shelf Smoke Shop on East Tremont Avenue around 12:30 a.m.
He's seemingly looking around before he pulls out a gun, only to immediately run away because the store clerk, Fares Alhazmi, himself is armed.
A co-owner of the store tells Eyewitness News Carey later returned and intended to kill the store clerk.
The video shows Carey pointing his gun immediately upon reentering the store leading to a mad scramble ending with Alhazmi firing a wild shot from behind the counter that hit Carey in the head.
The 26-year-old was questioned by police Thursday, but authorities ultimately determined it to be an act of self-defense.
The store is a licensed cannabis dispensary which makes it a target according to the founder of a group representing small businesses.
An outside camera provides a strange postscript to the shooting, as a crowd gathers near the suspect lying dead in the doorway, a passerby in a grey hoodie and black vest takes Carey's gun, puts it in a bag, and walks off into the night.
The shooting may have been justified, but the gun was unregistered and so the clerk has been charged with criminal possession of a weapon. No other charges are pending.
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