Sunday was Ali Arezoumandifar’s last night of work at the Liquor Market at Congress Avenue and Woolbright Road. After a robbery just weeks ago, the 79-year-old man’s family finally convinced him it was time to retire, according to the officer who investigated the case. But as his family prepared a celebratory dinner home, Arezoumandifar never left the store.
A customer found him, shot and killed behind the counter — the city’s sixth homicide of 2015 and one of eight in the previous eight days in Palm Beach County, whose homicide count for the year has reached 90, according to a Palm Beach Post database.
Police identify Jupiter clerk killed in apparent Boynton Beach robbery photo
provided by Boynton Beach Police
Ali Arezoumandifar
The evidence points to another robbery, city police investigator Marco Villari said Monday.
Police won’t say how much cash or merchandise is missing. There’s in-store video, but police say it didn’t capture the crime.
Villari said he got to know Arezoumandifar, who commuted from Jupiter, after the man hda tangled with a previous robber last month.The officer remembered the grandfather as “a very nice, hard-working guy” who was helping out the new owner.
Police identify Jupiter clerk killed in apparent Boynton Beach robbery photo
Bill Ingram
Boynton Beach Police Investigator Marcos Villari, addressing members of the media in front of the portrait of seventy nine year old Ali Arezoumandifar during a press conference requesting the publics help in solving this murder Monday Nov. 23, 2015, at the Boynton Beach police department headquarters in Boynton Beach. Arezoumandifar was shot Sunday evening at the Liquor Market near Woolbright and Congress Avenue.(Bill Ingram / The Palm Beach Post)
Sunday just after 8 p.m., it was a customer who called police to the store. The person had found Arezoumandifar’s body. Police said he died from a single gunshot wound, but declined to elaborate.
On Oct. 27, a man wearing a black mask grabbed more than $300 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets from the store and fled in a dark blue sedan, police said. Arezoumandifar ran after the robber and got knocked to the ground when the man took off, according to a police report.
“It shook up the plaza, but nobody expected what happened last night,” Villari said. “People are definitely concerned.”
Villari spent some time with Arezoumandifar as he was treated for various cuts and scrapes at a hospital. The officer met the store keeper’s kids and learned he was the “old-school” kind of guy who would go after a robber.
Villari said police tracked the cashed tickets to a man and his girlfriend, but did not have enough evidence to charge them. The two people, who police did not name, face similar charges for a snatch-and-grab at a 7-Eleven on Boynton Beach Boulevard. Only one of the two remains in jail, officers said.
Police do not know if the previous robbery is linked to this one that ended Arezoumandifar’s life.
The plaza is a low-crime area, Villari said. Other than the robbery in October, he said the last incident there was a burglary in 2010.
Magnolia Salgado, who works at the dry cleaners three doors down from Arezoumandifar’s liquor store, said the two had built a rapport over the last three years.
When she visited the Liquor Market, he’d extend a friendly discount and she would do the same when he came to her shop. He’d kiss her hand to say hello, she recalled. Though he didn’t speak much English, they understood each other.
“I don’t get it,” Salgado said of the homicide. “It’s very sad.”
If anyone has information on this incident they are urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-458-TIPS (8477) stay anonymous and be eligible for up to $1,000 REWARD! You can also text tips to tips@cspbc.com
Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/crime-law/police-identify-jupiter-clerk-killed-in-apparent-b/npTCn/