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A 37-year-old Pakistani father of three dies in a robbery at his store in a tough neighborhood.
By KATHRYN WEXLER
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 4, 2000
TAMPA -- Muhammad Naeem Akhtar knew he needed some protection at the convenience store he bought 18 months ago on a rundown corner of Columbus Drive.
Just last month, a gunman ordered the Pakistani store owner to put $260 cash in a plastic bag and throw in a cellular phone and six cheap cigars while he was at it.
Akhtar, a peaceful man and father of three, wouldn't think of buying a gun, his friend Kishor Solanki said Monday afternoon. A bulletproof cashier's window would suffice.
He never got around to it. "Now it's too late," Solanki said.
Akhtar, 37, died in the doorway of the Columbus Food Mart about 11 a.m. Monday, gunned down by a teenage robber who took cash from the register, police said.
A clerk, Larry Cecil, watched as the youth shot Akhtar in the temple at arm's length, officers said. Cecil also was threatened but wasn't harmed, police said.
"He liked work," said Solanki of Akhtar. "He did not think it was dangerous so much."
Police said several witnesses identified a suspect, thought to be a 15-year-old who lives in the neighborhood where the store is, just north of Ybor City.
"We tentatively have a name on him," said police spokesman Joe Durkin.
Solanki said detectives told him Akhtar had some bruises, suggesting a struggle just before the robber fired and ran out the door, heading north on Avenida Republica de Cuba.
"There was some sort of altercation," said Durkin. Akhtar may have tried to stop the robber from leaving with the money, Durkin said.
Friends and family from India and Pakistan stood on the hot pavement just beyond the yellow police tape Monday afternoon, talking in Hindi with tear-streaked faces. Customers also gathered. They gaped at the white sheets strung over the glass doors to shield Akhtar's body from view.
Akhtar never insisted on the full price when they came up a little short, several said.
"Friendly guy," said George Caldwell, who walks to the store twice a day to buy cigarettes.
Yet others said they stayed away from the store because the neighborhood was too rough. There is an empty lot to the east of the store, and across the street looms a huge, boarded-up building.
"I don't ever stop here," said Frank Sarconi, a school maintenance supervisor who lives close by. "It's too dangerous."
In the last five months, police have been called to Akhtar's store at 1312 E Columbus Drive 28 times for things like robberies, aggravated assaults, petty thefts and general disturbances, reports show.
During the last serious robbery, on June 10, the assailant pointed a gun at Cecil and Akhtar, and got money from the cash register, police said.
As the robber pedaled away on a bicycle, Akhtar futilely ran after him, police said. The surveillance camera was not working then. Durkin didn't know if it was functioning Monday morning, or if the robberies were related.
"Way too early to tell," Durkin said.
Solanki said that eight months ago he and Akhtar bought a dilapidated motel, formerly called the Skyview, in St. Petersburg. Akhtar was excited about leasing the convenience store to someone else. The motel was to be his first venture beyond the retail business.
"We had been trying to get a loan to fix it up," Solanki said.
- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Kathryn Wexler can be reached at (813) 226-3386 or wexler@sptimes.com.