A victim in a Saturday triple-shooting at a Detroit gas station says the gunman warned a clerk during a dispute that he would shoot every customer in the store before opening fire.
David Langston says he pleaded “don’t shoot” to the gunman, who, according to police, was angered in a dispute with the clerk over $3. He said his best friend, Gregory Karlos Samuel Fortner-Kelly, also begged the gas station’s clerk to open the locked doors of the business and let them out before being shot.The doors remained locked and the gunman shot the customers inside, Langston told Free Press reporter Jasmin Barmore, who is a friend of the victims.Langston, Fortner-Kelly and another patron were shot. Fortner-Kelly, 37, was killed.
Detroit police and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office would not confirm or deny the details Langston provided the Free Press as of Tuesday evening. Efforts to reach owners of the Mobil gas station on West McNichols Road near the Lodge Freeway were unsuccessful.
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Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy planned to address the case in a Wednesday morning news conference.
Detroit police on Sunday arrested a 27-year-old man suspected in the shooting.
Police on Monday said the gas station was unlicensed and was shut down by the Detroit Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department amid the shooting investigation.Fortner-Kelly’s loved ones are distraught and angry over death. He was a father of three. His oldest daughter, 14, is about to graduate middle school.Before he was killed, Langston said it was Fortner-Kelly who tried to shield everyone from getting shot.“That’s just what type of person he was,” said his childhood friend, Tihesha Redmond. “He’s always been a person to be there for everyone around him and take care of them and make sure they’re good.”Fortner-Kelly was a graduate of Southfield High School and Wayne State University. He had been a substitute teacher, according to Redmond.He was an outgoing, funny, “comedian type of person,” Redmond said. “No matter what you’re going through, he’s going to have you laughing.”“He was truly an earth angel,” added his mother, Marilyn Fortner.
Free Press reporter Jenna Prestininzi contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Gunman shot customers in Detroit gas station after warning clerk, victim says
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