Posted on 09/19/2010 12:47:09 PM PDT by marktwain
Family members of a 14-year-old boy who was killed while attempting to rob a convenience store Thursday night said Friday that they are eager to see the full investigation to determine whether his death was necessary.
Tulsa Police Capt. Dave Roberts said two masked robbers walked into Zeba Food Mart No. 2, at 506 E. 56th St. North, with a rifle around 10:45 p.m. and started shooting.
Tulsa Fire Department driver Sam Agee said the robbers were wearing plastic masks that distorted their faces.
Zahid Khan, an employee at the store, returned fire with a handgun, shooting one of the intruders.
Qualynn Dabney, 14, was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot to the upper torso, police said Friday.
The other robber fled, Roberts said.
Khan told police the masked robbers came into the store armed with long rifles and started shooting.
Detectives recovered a .22-caliber rifle next to Dabney's body.
The boy's family said Friday that he didn't have a gun, and they said it was the other boy who was carrying the weapon.
Detective Demita Kinard said a suspect was brought in for questioning early Friday. That person, who was not identified, was released, but investigators are examining security videos to help identify the other person involved in the robbery attempt, she said.
Beverly Miller, Dabney's grandmother, said the family believes Dabney had become friends with some older men who might have gotten him into trouble.
Despite that, Miller said, she wants a thorough investigation into the shooting and doesn't think Dabney should have been shot.
She said the other boy had the gun and fled, leaving Dabney alone in the store unarmed.
"My grandson was left there - 14 years old - with no gun," Miller said.
Dabney was in the eighth grade at Phoenix Rising, an alternative education program operated through a partnership between the Tulsa County Juvenile Bureau and Tulsa Public Schools, said Mary Kevin McNamara, director of Phoenix Rising.
"We're devastated by this," McNamara said of those in the small program consisting of about 20 students. "He was a wonderful student."
Dabney was with the school for a year and had just turned 14 in May, McNamara said.
"He had incredible energy, lots of life," she said. "He was loved by everyone in this program. Everybody is just struggling today. This was extremely sad."
A Tulsa World article about a mural painted by Phoenix Rising students in May highlighted Dabney as a child finding a talent in painting.
Dave Sherry, a Phoenix Rising teacher, said then that Dabney was one of the students whom the program was affecting deeply.
"Qualynn, he's one of our middle school students who has a lot of energy," Sherry said in May. "He's all over the place. A lot of fun. Very playful. Once he was working on this mural - he was working on the bottom level, painting the background behind the flames - he was quiet, he was focused and he was just very intent on getting this perfect line painted on there. So he really looked like an actual artist, and it was awesome."
McNamara said all of the students in the program have counselors and that all classes in the program were canceled Friday.
An employee at the convenience store, who was not working during the shooting, said a hole in the ceiling apparently was made by the robbers' shots.
Also in the convenience store were at least three bullet holes that employees said were made by the clerk's shots.
Two bullets went through a refrigerator, and one dented the cash register.
Khan and the store manager did not respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon.
The convenience store is directly across the street from Fire Station No. 19.
Firefighters who responded to the shooting said it was pretty brazen to attempt a robbery so close to emergency responders.
"They're just not being smart," Agee said.
This wasn't the first time this year that the store was hit by armed robbers, and suspects were caught previously, he said.
Agee said a dispatcher called the fire station on a phone Thursday night rather than using the normal alarm, which would have automatically opened the fire station's garage doors and possibly allowed the shooters access to the station.
As police arrived, the firefighters joined them and said Dabney was dead, Agee said.
“Tulsa Police Capt. Dave Roberts said two masked robbers walked into Zeba Food Mart No. 2, at 506 E. 56th St. North, with a rifle around 10:45 p.m. and started shooting.”
Ah, yeah, I think it was necessary.
What the he!! is a 14 year old doing out on a school night at 10:45 p.m. You can forget the 'He's a good boy who got in with the wrong crowd' routine. We aren't buying that line.
“...two masked robbers walked into Zeba Food Mart No. 2, at 506 E. 56th St. North, with a rifle around 10:45 p.m. and started shooting.”
Ah...yup. Sadly, but if you start shooting, you become a target.
Besides, why was a 14 year old on the street at 10:45pm on a school night?
His family says that their young relative was unarmed. Of course, they weren’t there at the time - but I’ll assume that they had a long track record of just not being there when it came to the deceased.
Hmmm...does the family have an intimate knowledge of the robbery?
Since they found the rifle by the dead perp it appears that he was armed and that the other perp did not run off with it.
more air for me to breathe. And the response of the family is probably a good example of what created him in the first place,,,
Now you’re jumping to conclusions. What if the school district had a day off for Yom Kippur?
That says it all.
Parents (family members) behind the curve that have criminal children.
Imagine that!
Next will be blaming the EVIIIL gun when all else is exhausted.
Better to kill criminals early. It saves a lot of money and grief to would-be future victims.
Oh, and since the little creep was a minor, I'd bill his family for all the police work.
Heh, seems a lot of people had pretty much the same opinion as I did. The comments section for the newspaper had this to say; “Due to the number of comments that violate our terms and conditions, the Tulsa World has elected to disable comments for this page.”
Apparently wondering who they can SUE!!! Everyone KNOWS that 14 year olds have the RIGHT to stick up stores and shoot anybody they want.
That pretty well settles it
Quaalude Dabney should have stuck with art and declined the opportunity to moonlight as an armed thief.
“What if the school district had a day off for Yom Kippur?”
LOL!
He just met his Maker sooner then for atonement.
You go into a conveiniance stre with a rifle and mask and start shooting, EXPECT TO GET SHOT!
“Qualynn Dabney, 14, was pronounced dead...”
I blame whoever named him “Qualynn”. He was doomed to come to no good end.
Not just necessary, but commendable.
I wonder if he was spiritual?
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