FORT WORTH, Texas — Fort Worth Police say they're searching for a young woman and two young men, who they say shot at a convenience store and its owner.
Officials say the shooting happened after the owner refused to sell them 99-cent smokes.
Ali Hamad had to think quickly Friday morning, hiding behind a freezer at his south Fort Worth store, an encounter with those suspects went horribly wrong.
Surveillance video shows him duck for cover as one of the would-be customers sprayed his business with bullets.
"I was thinking I got shot to be honest with you, because I fell on the ground," Hamad said, adding that a bullet appeared to graze his eyelid.
Hamad said just before 5 a.m., the young woman and one of the young men each tried buying cigarillos from him, but because they wouldn't show their IDs, he refused.
"Teenage kids," he remarked about their estimated age.
Then, the second young man walked in, attempting to do the same.
Hamad, who is a father himself said, "No," while pointing at the age requirements on the wall. Then things got heated.
"He said yeah, he wanted to spray the store down," Hamad recalled. "That's when I walked outside and told them to leave."
On surveillance video, you can see one of the suspects chuck a drink at Hamad.
Seconds later, the driver-- who was the second young man to try and buy the smokes-- shot multiple times as he sped off.
Hamad falls to the ground and glass from the windows shatters everywhere.
"For something just so minute, really it's just senseless," said FWPD Officer Tracy Carter.
Carter urged people to look closely at video of the suspects and their car, a Honda Accord.
"Thank God he was not hit by gunfire, but we're looking for three young suspects right now," he said.
Hamad could not understand the anger over a package of 99-cent cigarillos.
"Bullets flying everywhere inside the store," he recalled. "And I hope those kids get caught soon before it hurts anybody else."
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