Video captures man shooting co-worker dead in Buffalo store

Publish date: 2024-06-15

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Horrifying video captured the moment a man shot his co-worker in the head in front of his young son inside a Buffalo convenience store — then calmly grabbed a bite to eat, sat on a chair and licked his fingers.

The shocking incident unfolded about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday inside the store on Broadway near Sears Street, where surveillance footage captured a barefoot man in a gray sweatshirt apparently making a purchase at Sears Food Enterprise.

The man, store employee Abdul Hussein, 25, is heard exchanging heated words and profanities with his co-worker, identified by WGRZ as Tawfaik Alsheari, 62.

Over the course of about three minutes, Hussein appears increasingly agitated and switches to Arabic a few times as Alsheari stands nearby with a boy believed to be his son.

Abdul Hussein, 25, is seen at the counter at the Sears Food Enterprise store in Buffalo.
He exchanges heated words with Tawfaik Alsheari, 62.
Hussein grabs a rifle and shoots his co-worker at point-blank range, according to the chilling footage and authorities.
The victim falls face first onto the floor as a boy believed to be his son recoils in horror.
The suspect then sits down calmly and apparently eats a snack after the ghastly shooting.

Finally, Hussein picks up a rifle and slowly approaches Alsheari, who faces the other way as the boy warns him about the barrel pointed in their direction.

Hussein fires once, hitting Alsheari in the head, and he drops to the ground. The boy runs behind the counter before the gunman inexplicably begins looking at a shelf — apparently in search of a snack.

He appears to wash his hands, grab something to eat and sit on a chair, licking his hands as the victim lies motionless.

Hussein was arrested a short time later and arraigned Wednesday on a murder charge. He was held without bail and is scheduled to return to court Monday for a felony hearing.

The victim’s ex-wife, Melissa Alsheari, expressed her shock that the graphic video has been shared on Facebook.

“I can’t think straight to know that it’s out there for people to see, and they’re sharing it,” she told WGRZ. “I don’t understand how they can put it on Facebook and be OK with themselves. Like you’re seeing a man get executed, basically.”

She added: “I don’t know anything else to do. I’ve called everybody. I called homicide detectives, the police department. I’m going to people that are posting these videos and asking them to take them down.”

Facebook told the outlet it has placed the clip behind a sensitive content warning and allowed it to remain on the platform because it does not violate any of its standards.

The social media company told WGRZ it only “removes videos and photos that show the violent death of someone when a family member requests its removal.”

Alsheari said she was trying to make that happen before her 15-year-old twin daughters see the footage.

“I don’t want them to see their dad being murdered. No kid should ever have to go through that,” she told the outlet.

She lamented that people will always remember that her ex-husband “was a person that got shot in the head in this corner store by his co-worker — not that he was a good father, or a good person who had a kind heart and would do anything for about anybody.”

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