Convenience Store Clerk Shot And Killed Inside Auburn-Gresham Shop
Updated 11/14/12 - 4:22 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Hungry people in Chicago's Auburn-Gresham neighborhood said a convenience store clerk who was shot and killed Tuesday night was so generous and caring that he would give them food for free.
But a heavy plastic shield failed to protect Elahmadi Goba from two bullets Tuesday night, when he was shot dead while working inside the N & A Food Market at 84th Street and Racine Avenue in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood.
Sources said the crime was captured on store surveillance cameras. Police were reviewing security tapes, which provided what are described as crystal clear images of the last moments of a well-loved store clerk's life.
"He was like an angel walking on earth," said Goba's best friend Bakil Hussein. "It's a big loss."
Hussein was overcome with emotion on Wednesday as he talked about the shooting that claimed his best friend's life.
"Everybody loved him in this neighborhood," Hussein said.
Sources said the crime was captured by the store's surveillance cameras. Goba, 40, was shot in the chest through the cashier window, while his hands were up in the air.
The two men believed responsible did not take anything from the store.
A steady stream of well-wishers wrote messages to the man they knew by his nickname, Eli. A candle burned in his memory on Wednesday.
Many friends and customers spoke of Goba's generosity.
"It's sad to see something like that happen to somebody that is nice to the neighborhood," said local resident Byron Williams.
Some spoke of not having enough money to buy groceries, and said Goba would let them take items free, so their families could eat.
That same kind spirit was shown to customers at a store Goba owned at 79th Street and Rhodes Avenue. Terrance Warren was a security guard there for five years, and described Goba as "very caring."
"I don't see how somebody could come in and do something like that," Warren said.
Goba, of the 500 block of East 79th Street, had been working in Chicago to send money back to his wife in Yemen. He was planning to go back to Yemen next summer, to be with his wife and start a family.
