Drizzt
Member
Shelby Food Mart owner indicted in October shooting death of robber
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Megan Woolhouse
[email protected]
The Courier-Journal
After a string of robberies at his Shelby Food Mart, Firas Al Kurdi kept a gun under the cashier's counter.
Last October, the store owner used it, fatally shooting James Abdul-Shajee as Abdul-Shajee, armed with a knife, robbed the business.
Yesterday a Jefferson County grand jury indicted the Jordanianborn Al Kurdi on one count of murder.
Prosecutor Rob Bonar said the case was presented to the grand jury because witnesses inside and outside the store on South Shelby Street offered different versions of events. Some people inside the store said they saw the robbery, Bonar said, while others outside said they saw Al Kurdi beat the robber with a metal pole in front of the store.
Bonar said Abdul-Shajee was shot three times -- once in the back. Police at the time said all the shots were fired inside the store. Bonar would not elaborate on that yesterday.
''At one point this event was a robbery, and at some point it turned into something else,'' Bonar said.
Abdul-Shajee, 33, was charged posthumously with first-degree robbery.
Armand Judah, Al Kurdi's lawyer, did not return telephone calls yesterday. But he said in an interview shortly after the incident that his client acted in self-defense.
He said Abdul-Shajee nearly cut off Al Kurdi's nose with a knife during the robbery, causing injuries that required several plastic surgery operations.
At the time, police described the Oct. 12 incident as a ''robbery gone bad.'' They said Abdul-Shajee was leaving the store when he was shot.
Responding officers found Abdul-Shajee in front of the store.
Spectators flocked to the scene as police investigated. One witness told a reporter that a store employee beat Abdul-Shajee with a gun and a metal pole outside the store after the shooting.
Abdul-Shajee was pronounced dead at University Hospital the same day. The Jefferson County coroner's office determined that the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and head trauma resulting in skull fractures, Bonar said.
Both Al Kurdi, who is now 35, and Abdul-Shajee had been accused of violent behavior previously.
Al Kurdi faced charges of terroristic threatening and menacing earlier last year. According to a criminal complaint filed by Fayeq Salaimeh, Al Kurdi's landlord, Al Kurdi threatened to ''slice him to pieces'' with a butcher knife he was carrying.
The charges were dismissed, according to Debbie Linnig Michals, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Circuit Court Clerk's office.
Al Kurdi was ordered to have no contact with Salaimeh, and Salaimeh was ordered to give 48 hours' notice before an inspection.
At the time of the robbery, AbdulShajee had a half-dozen convictions for armed robbery -- including a 1994 holdup of the Star of Louisville dinner boat.
Abdul-Shajee was 19 when he tried to rob Brother's Pawn Shop on Market Street with a sawed-off shotgun in 1988. At that time, he was known as James Johnson.
During the robbery, he briefly took a store visitor hostage, holding the shotgun to his head. He was eventually captured, and Abdul-Shajee confessed to two other convenience store armed robberies, according to court records.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on three counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of wanton endangerment and one count of kidnapping. He served six years before he was paroled in 1994, court records show.
Less than six months later, he was arrested on three more charges of armed robbery, including the Star of Louisville incident. A bartender on the dinner boat recognized AbdulShajee as the dishwasher at a nearby cafe, and he was arrested.
Abdul-Shajee entered an Alford plea in the cases -- a guilty plea that allows a defendant to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that there was sufficient evidence for a conviction. A judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison and revoked his probation.
In the fall of 2001, he was granted parole.
His wife, Sharon Knox Shajee, told a reporter earlier this year that he took a job at Swift Co., a meat-packing plant, when he was released from prison. The couple were also expecting their first child.
She said he had hoped for a fresh start but was devastated last fall when his brother, Marshall Marbly, was fatally shot in a standoff with police. Marbly, who was mentally ill, drew what appeared to be a rifle during the incident, but the weapon was later found to be a BB gun.
Shajee could not be reached yesterday. But earlier this year she said her husband felt grateful to be out of prison and with his family.
''He didn't deserve to die that way,'' she said.
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/03/27/ke032703s387903.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Megan Woolhouse
[email protected]
The Courier-Journal
After a string of robberies at his Shelby Food Mart, Firas Al Kurdi kept a gun under the cashier's counter.
Last October, the store owner used it, fatally shooting James Abdul-Shajee as Abdul-Shajee, armed with a knife, robbed the business.
Yesterday a Jefferson County grand jury indicted the Jordanianborn Al Kurdi on one count of murder.
Prosecutor Rob Bonar said the case was presented to the grand jury because witnesses inside and outside the store on South Shelby Street offered different versions of events. Some people inside the store said they saw the robbery, Bonar said, while others outside said they saw Al Kurdi beat the robber with a metal pole in front of the store.
Bonar said Abdul-Shajee was shot three times -- once in the back. Police at the time said all the shots were fired inside the store. Bonar would not elaborate on that yesterday.
''At one point this event was a robbery, and at some point it turned into something else,'' Bonar said.
Abdul-Shajee, 33, was charged posthumously with first-degree robbery.
Armand Judah, Al Kurdi's lawyer, did not return telephone calls yesterday. But he said in an interview shortly after the incident that his client acted in self-defense.
He said Abdul-Shajee nearly cut off Al Kurdi's nose with a knife during the robbery, causing injuries that required several plastic surgery operations.
At the time, police described the Oct. 12 incident as a ''robbery gone bad.'' They said Abdul-Shajee was leaving the store when he was shot.
Responding officers found Abdul-Shajee in front of the store.
Spectators flocked to the scene as police investigated. One witness told a reporter that a store employee beat Abdul-Shajee with a gun and a metal pole outside the store after the shooting.
Abdul-Shajee was pronounced dead at University Hospital the same day. The Jefferson County coroner's office determined that the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and head trauma resulting in skull fractures, Bonar said.
Both Al Kurdi, who is now 35, and Abdul-Shajee had been accused of violent behavior previously.
Al Kurdi faced charges of terroristic threatening and menacing earlier last year. According to a criminal complaint filed by Fayeq Salaimeh, Al Kurdi's landlord, Al Kurdi threatened to ''slice him to pieces'' with a butcher knife he was carrying.
The charges were dismissed, according to Debbie Linnig Michals, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Circuit Court Clerk's office.
Al Kurdi was ordered to have no contact with Salaimeh, and Salaimeh was ordered to give 48 hours' notice before an inspection.
At the time of the robbery, AbdulShajee had a half-dozen convictions for armed robbery -- including a 1994 holdup of the Star of Louisville dinner boat.
Abdul-Shajee was 19 when he tried to rob Brother's Pawn Shop on Market Street with a sawed-off shotgun in 1988. At that time, he was known as James Johnson.
During the robbery, he briefly took a store visitor hostage, holding the shotgun to his head. He was eventually captured, and Abdul-Shajee confessed to two other convenience store armed robberies, according to court records.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on three counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of wanton endangerment and one count of kidnapping. He served six years before he was paroled in 1994, court records show.
Less than six months later, he was arrested on three more charges of armed robbery, including the Star of Louisville incident. A bartender on the dinner boat recognized AbdulShajee as the dishwasher at a nearby cafe, and he was arrested.
Abdul-Shajee entered an Alford plea in the cases -- a guilty plea that allows a defendant to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that there was sufficient evidence for a conviction. A judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison and revoked his probation.
In the fall of 2001, he was granted parole.
His wife, Sharon Knox Shajee, told a reporter earlier this year that he took a job at Swift Co., a meat-packing plant, when he was released from prison. The couple were also expecting their first child.
She said he had hoped for a fresh start but was devastated last fall when his brother, Marshall Marbly, was fatally shot in a standoff with police. Marbly, who was mentally ill, drew what appeared to be a rifle during the incident, but the weapon was later found to be a BB gun.
Shajee could not be reached yesterday. But earlier this year she said her husband felt grateful to be out of prison and with his family.
''He didn't deserve to die that way,'' she said.
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/03/27/ke032703s387903.htm
