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Baltimore riots: 'They even took the ATM' – Pakistani shop owner may have lost $100,000 to looters - Americas - World - The Independent
Baltimore riots: 'They even took the ATM' – Pakistani shop owner may have lost $100,000 to looters
Faizan and Kanwel Shaheed describe the carnage after their aunt's grocery store was targeted
David Usborne
Baltimore
Tuesday 28 April 2015
"They even took the ATM," Faizan Shaheed declared as he and his sister, Kanwel, were helping to nail plywood sheets over the shattered windows of their aunt’s small Pakistani grocery on Charles Street in the downtown area of Baltimore, just one of so many properties ransacked by rioters, who went on the rampage following the funeral of a young black man who died in police custory.
The shop, Annapurna Grocery and Gifts, came under attack from a small mob in the middle of the afternoon. They smashed the windows and double doors before stripping nearly everything they could find. All that was left last night were lines of stripped shelves, some onions and a few empty sweet boxes.
"They took all the cigarettes, even the sex pills," said Kanwel, referring to popular stimulant products typically found for sale in corner shops here. She couldn’t even say how the youths had managed to haul the ATM, or cashpoint machine, out of the building and make off with it. They had broken the windows by hurling a newspaper distribution box through them from the street. Her aunt, Shaheen Saleem, is just one of scores in Baltimore who saw their businesses ransacked as mobs ran amok across the city, even here in the downtown area that is normally a bustling commercial and tourist district and especially in parts of the northwest of the city.
"What is she going to do? This isn’t her fault. Is the city going to help her? She doesn’t even have insurance," said Kanwel, who said she left her children at home crying to come to help with the clean-up. "We wouldn’t even think that something like this could happen in Baltimore." She speculated that the young men may have targeted the shop because they knew it was owned by Pakistanis.
Faiazan Shaheed said he is convinced that the men that did this to his aunt were members of normally warring gangs who declared in a message to police earlier on Monday that they intended to unite to "purge" the city as anger continued to rage over the death over a week ago of a 25-year-old African-American man, Freddie Gray, seven days after being arrested by Baltimore police.
A CVS chemist outlet burns in Baltimore after it was set alight by rioters Before racing to his aunt's shop, he said he witnessed young black men gathering at a Baltimore petrol station near his home offering bottles of Grey Goose vodka, that they had presumably looted, for one dollar each. "I swear to God," he said. Packs of whiskey miniatures were being offered to passers-by for $2 each.
Freddie Gray's family appeal for calm amid riots The family believe that their losses will run to about $100,000. They hadn’t shared that figure with their aunt last night, for fear it would be too much for her. She had been ordered by police to leave the shop shortly before the mob entered it. When she returned an hour later she discovered the lost inventory and smashed windows. "She couldn’t even speak for 30 minutes, she was so overcome," her niece explained to The Independent.
"They were basically kids," said Mr Shaheed, "but I know that they all belonged to the gangs, the Crips, the Bloods and the Black Guerilla Family." Looters ransacked shops and torched police cars amid the unrest Her shop seemed to have been singled out. A few other businesses on the block had broken windows last night but were otherwise undamaged. Compared to some other shops in the city, including a large CVS chemists in the northwest area, maybe his aunt was lucky. But at least no one had set fire to her place.
Baltimore riots: 'They even took the ATM' – Pakistani shop owner may have lost $100,000 to looters
Faizan and Kanwel Shaheed describe the carnage after their aunt's grocery store was targeted
David Usborne
Baltimore
Tuesday 28 April 2015
"They even took the ATM," Faizan Shaheed declared as he and his sister, Kanwel, were helping to nail plywood sheets over the shattered windows of their aunt’s small Pakistani grocery on Charles Street in the downtown area of Baltimore, just one of so many properties ransacked by rioters, who went on the rampage following the funeral of a young black man who died in police custory.
The shop, Annapurna Grocery and Gifts, came under attack from a small mob in the middle of the afternoon. They smashed the windows and double doors before stripping nearly everything they could find. All that was left last night were lines of stripped shelves, some onions and a few empty sweet boxes.
"They took all the cigarettes, even the sex pills," said Kanwel, referring to popular stimulant products typically found for sale in corner shops here. She couldn’t even say how the youths had managed to haul the ATM, or cashpoint machine, out of the building and make off with it. They had broken the windows by hurling a newspaper distribution box through them from the street. Her aunt, Shaheen Saleem, is just one of scores in Baltimore who saw their businesses ransacked as mobs ran amok across the city, even here in the downtown area that is normally a bustling commercial and tourist district and especially in parts of the northwest of the city.
"What is she going to do? This isn’t her fault. Is the city going to help her? She doesn’t even have insurance," said Kanwel, who said she left her children at home crying to come to help with the clean-up. "We wouldn’t even think that something like this could happen in Baltimore." She speculated that the young men may have targeted the shop because they knew it was owned by Pakistanis.
Faiazan Shaheed said he is convinced that the men that did this to his aunt were members of normally warring gangs who declared in a message to police earlier on Monday that they intended to unite to "purge" the city as anger continued to rage over the death over a week ago of a 25-year-old African-American man, Freddie Gray, seven days after being arrested by Baltimore police.
A CVS chemist outlet burns in Baltimore after it was set alight by rioters Before racing to his aunt's shop, he said he witnessed young black men gathering at a Baltimore petrol station near his home offering bottles of Grey Goose vodka, that they had presumably looted, for one dollar each. "I swear to God," he said. Packs of whiskey miniatures were being offered to passers-by for $2 each.
Freddie Gray's family appeal for calm amid riots The family believe that their losses will run to about $100,000. They hadn’t shared that figure with their aunt last night, for fear it would be too much for her. She had been ordered by police to leave the shop shortly before the mob entered it. When she returned an hour later she discovered the lost inventory and smashed windows. "She couldn’t even speak for 30 minutes, she was so overcome," her niece explained to The Independent.
"They were basically kids," said Mr Shaheed, "but I know that they all belonged to the gangs, the Crips, the Bloods and the Black Guerilla Family." Looters ransacked shops and torched police cars amid the unrest Her shop seemed to have been singled out. A few other businesses on the block had broken windows last night but were otherwise undamaged. Compared to some other shops in the city, including a large CVS chemists in the northwest area, maybe his aunt was lucky. But at least no one had set fire to her place.
