A black teen missed a $ 2 beer. Then a Tennessee store employee followed him and shot him down

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Anwar Ghazali was sentenced for second-degree murder after a four-day trial, Shelby County Attorney General Amy Weirich said Friday.

"This accused took on him to be the judge and jury and the hangman for a $ 2 beer," said prosecutor Lora Fowler, according to CNN's affiliate, WMC.

The shootout occurred in March 2018, after Dorian Harris was released from the Top Stop Shop with a beer without paying, said Weirich.

The safety video of the incident broadcast in court shows that Ghazali, while he was behind the counter and dealing with another client, had pulled out a handgun and directed him to Harris . He then ran out to follow the teenager and shot several times.

Then he went back to the store and told a witness, "I think I shot him." He did not call the police and no other customer inside the store, WMC reported.

Harris was shot at least three times and bleeding, Fowler said. His body was found two days later in a yard near the store with gunshots at the back of the thigh, Weirich said.

Ghazali's defense lawyer, Blake Ballin, told CNN in an email that Ghazali asserted that he had acted imprudently that night, but that his intention was never to harm to Harris.

He said that they were happy that the jury rejected the prosecution 's argument that it was a calculated and premeditated murder motivated by the theft of money. ;a beer. That would have come with a life sentence.

Ghazali should be sentenced on September 23rd.

"At the sentencing hearing, I expect him to express his sincere remorse and hope that Mr. Harris' family will be able to forgive him and continue to heal," he said. Ballin said.

The family cries, "Why did this happen to my son?

Anwar Ghazali was convicted of second degree murder for the murder of Dorian Harris.
The shooting, which sparked protests outside the store, has similarities to other examples of black men shot and killed in otherwise minor incidents. Bernice King, daughter of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., linked his death to the wider question of the value of African-American life known as the Black Lives Matter movement.
"Dear Memphis, I am here in your city. #DorianHarris should be here too" she said on Twitter. "If we do not attach importance to dark life and believe that Dorian's life is worth more than an allegedly stolen beer, we do not authentically honor my father."

Ballin said his defense team was focused on the facts and not on the emotion of the case.

"I understand why this case has caused public frustration because another African American child has been killed needlessly." But decisions of guilt and innocence and questions of intent should not to be based on emotions, "he said. "The defense team did their best to have the jury render a verdict based on the facts of the case and not on the skin color of someone else. another injustice. "

The members of Harris' family mourned the young man after the murder and before the trial.

"That should not have happened so," said her grandmother Effie Fitch at WMC in April 2018. "He was a kid and he was an adult, he should have more responsibilities." that and he runs a business. "
"Why did this happen to my son?" Harris's father, Peete Hanson, said earlier this week. "Why was he left there like that? Like he was nothing. Like he was no one."

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