Store Owner Calls For Change After Shooting In North Minneapolis Mart
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Minneapolis business owner is having an unusual reaction towards the person who shot at him from close range. The shooting happened Wednesday at Webber Mart in Minneapolis near the Camden neighborhood.
The shop owner says he turned down some teenagers who were trying to buy tobacco. After they left the store, one of them shot at the owner -- twice. But the owner is not angry.
From the neatly lined shelves to the feline fellowship -- the store cat-- it's a place to retreat and to trick-or-treat.
"This is my neighborhood. This is my community," owner Kevin Aldwaik said. "This is my business, my neighbors."
Aldwaik is very conscious of security and has cameras covering his store -- cameras that were rolling Wednesday afternoon. Kevin says some teens walked into his store asking to buy cigarettes. He turned them down because they didn't have IDs.
"This is when he [became] verbally abusive, starting threatening that, 'I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna rob. I'm gonna do that.' I say 'No, no. Listen, I have other kids in here. You need to get out of here,'" Aldwaik said.
The video shows Aldwaik walking out after them and when one of the young men shot at him two different times. Aldwaik had a surprisingly calm reaction.
"I wasn't really scared," he said. "I was more angry that we keep dealing with this violence issue over nothing."
He said he wants the person held accountable, and but mainly he wants the person helped.
"People call and worry about me," he said. "Don't worry about me. I want you to worry about the kid that did this."
Aldwaik said he and his council representative want similar change.
"It's weaving together the law enforcement, the community, and social services," said Phillipe M. Cunningham, a Minneapolis City Councilember from Ward Four. "What that does is it provides multiple off-ramps."
Police say they haven't named any suspects, but have leads on the case.
"I want all of them not to resort to violence or guns," Aldwaik said.
