Neighboring business owners were not surprised that a DeKalb County grocery store owner was shot and wounded while standing outside his business early Wednesday because, they said, they have seen an increase of armed robberies in recent months.
The 61-year-old owner of a convenience store in the 4000 block of Glenwood Road was shot in the leg early Wednesday, according to DeKalb County police. The two men had a shotgun, according to nearby business owners.
Detectives suspect the two men had been in the store earlier and had "some sort of a dispute with the clerk at that time," according to police spokeswoman Mekka Parish.
Parish said detectives did not have a "clean description" of the two.
She said the shooting was not considered to be an armed robbery.
"It was motivated by a dispute," Parish said.
Area business owners say they have noticed an increase in crime, especially armed robberies
"The neighborhood is really, really bad and the police don’t do too much about it," said Chae Johnsen, who works at a deli in the shopping center. "It happens all the time. That's the neighborhood . A lot of people have a gun around here. I don’t know if they have license but they do."
She said there was a heavy police presence for a time after the 2008 shooting death of two officers near Rick's Plaza.
But when the patrols dropped off, crime seemed to go up again, Johnsen said.
But Parrish said DeKalb PD had stepped up police activity in the area in the past two months with "impact patrols. Theyre out patrolling. They're doing traffic stops in areas that are high crime."
Stan Singleton, who owns an appliance store in Rick's Plaza, suspects the trouble of the area can be attributed to the same people "doing it over and over."
"There are lots of people moving in the neighborhood ... and you see a big change here in the past few months," Singleton said.
Joe Sims, who has operated a barbershop in the plaza for about a decade, said it was the second time in just a few months that the convenience store owner was robbed at gunpoint. Business owners are "just trying to make money, just trying to feed their families. [They] come here every day and try to make a living and they [criminals] try to take something from them," Sims said. "But that's how life is out here."
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