A world few of us know (repost from Crime Blog)

A recent news item reminded me of a story we ran a few months ago. The news item was about a shooting at the Fast Food Mart and Beverage Store in the Hidden Valley neighborhood. Apparently, a clerk at the store shot and killed a would-be robber. The store has been robbed 3 times since last July.

(Note: I just posted this on our crime blog, but thought it appropriate here, too.)

A recent news item reminded me of a story we ran a few months ago. The news item was about a shooting at the Fast Food Mart and Beverage Store in the Hidden Valley neighborhood. Apparently, a clerk at the store shot and killed a would-be robber. The store has been robbed 3 times since last July.

The news made me think of Van Miller’s piece in the May issue of Charlotte magazine. In it, he told the story of Ghenet Hailelassie, an Eritrean immigrant who owns and runs Midtown Foodmart near the intersection of Eastway and Shamrock. On New Year’s Eve 2005, her husband was shot and killed in the store by a would-be robber. Ghenet has worked in the store every day since, even though she hates it. “All my hope is gone, all dream is gone,” she told Van. “What kind of dream is the American dream?”

For me, the piece illuminated a part of Charlotte that I never experience. It displayed the desperate lives that many in Charlotte lead, and it showed a different side of the immigration debate. And it showed how crime, or the threat of it, is a constant in many people’s lives. —R.T.