Customers mourn clerk killed at Philadelphia gas station
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Neighbors and customers are at a loss for words after learning a beloved gas station clerk was killed in a robbery over a cash register Tuesday morning.
"He just didn't deserve it," a customer said. "He knows my children, he knows exactly what I want when I walk in the store, he knows to get it," a customer said, calling the man "just a really wonderful person."
Philadelphia police say the 66-year-old victim was working when three men in masks forced their way into a locked office inside the Galati Bros. Food Market, attached to the Exxon station at Torresdale Avenue and Friendship Street.
The manager of the mini-mart identified the cashier as Siboram Patro.
Once inside, police say the men attacked the clerk, shooting him once. After he collapsed, the suspects then took off with the cash register.
Police were on the scene just after 4 a.m. Tuesday. Officials say the clerk was found unresponsive in the office. Officers tried to rush him to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The entire incident was captured on the store's surveillance cameras, which police viewed.
"15th District police officers do come here and they check on the store clerk," Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said. "Several of the officers told me that they're familiar with him, they see him at night, they wave to him to make sure he's OK, so this is a tragedy. He's worked here for several years."
Neighbors who were out Tuesday morning saw the store cordoned off with police tape as investigators worked at the scene. They said the man was nothing but kind.
He was from India, just returned from a trip overseas and was concerned about the rise in crime in the city, ranging from carjackings in the parking lot to people attempting to break into gaming machines that are inside the store.
"He was just saying how he's scared to even smoke a cigarette out here anymore," a customer said.
"Just altogether a wonderful person," another person at the scene said.
Police are reviewing footage from surveillance cameras outside the store to identify the vehicle the suspects used to flee the scene.