Store clerk faces trial for suspected murder of teen stealing beer

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Store Clerk Anwar Ghazali’s trial began Monday after he was charged for allegedly shooting and killing a teen for stealing beer over a year ago.

Jury selection started Friday afternoon around 1:30 p.m. and is still ongoing.

According to investigators, Ghazali never reported the shooting.

Surveillance footage captured from different angles outside the Top Stop Shop on Springdale Street recorded 17-year-old Dorian Harris’ final moment in March of 2018.

A timestamp March 29 10:10 p.m. showed Harris, wearing blue pants, walks up to the store.

A few seconds later, investigators say Anwar Ghazali is seen on video leaving the store carrying a gun in his right hand.

Ghazali is charged with first-degree murder after police said he killed 17-year-old Dorian Harris for stealing a beer.

A surveillance camera recorded Ghazali running after Harris and going out of view of the camera. Harris was found dead a block away two days later.

“I am just lost. I am lost that this murderer took my son away from me,” said Harris’ father, Peete Hanson.

Hanson will be among the family members in the courtroom this week seeking justice. He is driving from Alabama to sit in the front row of the gallery as his son’s alleged killer is tried for the murder.

“Why did this happen to my son?” said Hanson. “Why was it that he was left there like that? Like he was nothing. Like he was a nobody."

As for the stolen beer that police say lead to the deadly night, Hanson couldn’t speak to that detail saying he wasn’t there that night. The father remembers his son as having a big heart with plans of joining the military after high school.

Testimony is slated to begin tomorrow afternoon.

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