olice take a man into custody on Westerlo Street in Albany at the end
of a standoff on Tuesday, Aug. 7. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union)
Posted on 08/08/2007 6:41:07 AM PDT by Pharmboy
Albany cashier seizes weapon from suspect; police arrest man
olice take a man into custody on Westerlo Street in Albany at the end
of a standoff on Tuesday, Aug. 7. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union)
ALBANY -- Hafiz Alam was standing behind the counter at Quail Street News just before dawn Tuesday when a man wearing a hooded sweat shirt and sunglasses rushed through the door with a shotgun and demanded money. The 29-year-old cashier had been in this situation before.
Once, three men toting guns forced him into a bathroom and robbed the store where he was working.
Another time, a would-be robber pointed a handgun at Alam's face, but fled when Alam took a swing at the man and knocked the gun away.
Then came Tuesday morning. Alam stared down the barrel of a loaded gun for the third time.
A security tape inside the store shows a man pacing out front at 5:17 a.m. as Alam put cigarettes on a display rack behind the counter. The man entered the store moments later with the shotgun raised.
"He told me to give him all the money," Alam said. "I told him to relax."
Alam stayed cool. The security tape shows him continuing to stock the shelf as he opened the register. As Alam reached for a stack of $20 bills, the man realized he had forgotten to load the weapon and stuffed a shell in the chamber. Alam laughed.
"He said, 'You think this is funny (expletive),' " Alam said. "I told him to calm down ... I was not afraid."
Alam handed the man the stack of $20 bills and took a step back. The drawer, still full of money, was open for the man to see. Alam later said he was stalling, hoping someone on the street might see the robbery and call police. The intruder wasn't happy.
"He told me he wanted all the money," Alam said.
The robber set the gun on the counter and Alam handed over a stack of $10 bills. He stepped back again but the man wanted more. They repeated the exchange with the $5 and $1 bills.
As the gunman collected the roughly $400, Alam grabbed the barrel of the gun and spun it around, aiming it at the intruder's head. Now the robber was staring down the barrel of his own gun.
"I told him, 'Don't move or I'll blow your head off,'T" said Alam, who came to the United States from Bangladesh in 1994.
The man ran out the door and Alam grabbed the phone to call police. He thought the 33-second ordeal was over.
Gun fires in struggle
Sixteen seconds later a security camera inside the store shows the robber approach the door from the left side. When Alam wasn't looking, the robber ran through the door and hurdled the counter, knocking over a box of Slim Jims.
"I would have shot him but I didn't know if the camera was working and no one was in the store to be a witness," Alam said. "I've got a family. I don't want any trouble."
He got some anyway.
The robber grabbed the gun and Alam dropped the phone as the pair struggled for control. They smashed into display racks, knocking down cartons of cigarettes and an entire wall of adult magazines. Copies of Fetish Dolls, Best of Club and Oriental Women went flying off the top shelf, as did a stack of Playboy Magazines with Mariah Carey on the cover.
They fought over the gun for 10 seconds. Then it went of, blowing a hole through a rack of Skoal and piercing the wall under a window. Alam let go of the gun and the man ran out the front door. The intruder got into a 2000 Ford Taurus and drove away, but not before a garbage hauler caught the license plate number.
Police storm house
The car registration led police to a two-story building at 71 Westerlo St. in the South End. A police tactical team arrived at the scene around 7 a.m. and officers closed off the entire block.
Two residents walked out the front door around 8:15 a.m. and told police the suspect, a relative, was on the first floor. Police attempted to contact the man but got no response. At 10:58 a.m. police pulled out a megaphone and ordered the suspect to leave the house.
Police made the call more than a dozen times with no response over the next five minutes. At 11:11 a.m., two blasts rocked the neighborhood as police detonated explosives to blow the front and back doors off their hinges. The suspect was once again asked to come out but police got no response.
At 11:22 a.m. police fired one round of tear gas into the building. Four seconds later they fired another. A man outside approached a police officer and said his stepson, Justin Walker, 22, was in the house.
Sixteen minutes later, the back door creaked open and Walker, dressed in underwear and a single blue tube sock, walked out with his hands behind his head. Cops with guns drawn screamed at Walker and forced him to the ground. He was handcuffed and taken to South Station.
Walker was charged with first-degree robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, public safety spokesman Detective James Miller said.
Cashier glad to be alive
It was business as usual back at Quail Street News Tuesday afternoon. Alam ended his shift at the 122 Quail St. store hours earlier but stayed around to answer questions from reporters. He narrated video of the robbery like a football coach reviewing game film and showed customers the hole the shotgun blast left in the wall.
He finally cracked when a reporter asked about his family. As Alam talked about his wife and three children, his eyes reddened and a tear pooled in his left eye before rolling down his cheek.
Two customers walked through the door as Alam composed himself and the video rolled once more.
"What a dummy," one of the customers said as he stared at the action unfolding on the security TV. "You could sell this for $49.99 in the hood!"
Alam wiped his tears away and smiled. He was alive.
Dumb perp ping...
I had a good friend back in college, he was from Bangladesh. Very cool, great guy, laid back. Glad this guy is ok, although I think he needs to get a new job or business.
Where is Nifong - we need some white indictments since this guy is obviously not guilty.
He ran the risk of getting killed because he didn't want any trouble. That speaks volumes about the way citizens are treated in New York.
Mr Walker was probably just trying to get some lunch money for his kids before he headed out to his regular job.
Wow, nice job, Hafiz Alam! :’) Thanks Pharmboy.
Ahhh... Albany!
Lived in Albany for ten years back in my yout.
Loved that city. Very quaint. Lotsa good drinking establishments, and the resulting friendly women you find in them!
My gr-gr-gr-gr-gr grandfather is buried about 30 miles east of there.
Was kayaking on the Hudson a few times, ended up falling in, took like three days to get that filmy stuff off my skin!!
Ahhh Albany!
Right next to Ski-neck-tiddy!
Except for that third week in January...
I would think the underwear unnecessary if he were wearing a single sock.
You have GOT to see the video, the second half when it gives you the camera angle showing the confrontation in profile: the clerk is cool as a cucumber and the way he grabs the shotgun is amazing. Way to go!
dumb is the word and hopefully, he’ll be locked up for a while,
Yes it does doesn't it. In a liberal paradise like NY and most of the northeast states a crime victim who injures or kills his or her attacker with a gun is considered guilty until proven innocent. If the victim is white and the criminal isn't, the victim is still guilty in the minds of the liberal judges even after he/she is proven innocent.
I imagine a lot of good NY LEOs have bleeding ulcers because of the frustration they suffer by risking their lives to bring crimnal dirtbags in only to see a liberal judge let them off scot free because of some minor technicality he/she found in the lawyer-speak lingo of the state law books.
Fry’em
Video later
Thats GREAT!
Yeah...
...in the country...far away from Albany and UPstate...
We treat criminals like endangered species.
S
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saw it on the news
immediately thought of the Armed Citizen Ping
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