Convenience store clerk shot dead in robbery

ATLANTA — Police have few clues on who may have shot and killed a convenience store clerk in southeast Atlanta but surveillance video shows every minute of the crime.
 
The owner of Big Brother 2 Food Mart arrived at the store located on Norwood Road just before midnight Sunday and discovered his employee, 23-year-old Algee Karmar Pada, dead in the front doorway.

Police said the incident appears to be a robbery that escalated to murder.

The property owner said a neighbor may have seen a car parked in front of the store earlier in the night, but no one heard the shots or called police.
 
"He came to close the store, so comes and sees somebody. The employee was dead in front of the door. No one called police or anything," property owner Paltu Roy said.

Friends of the victim say the killer showed no mercy as he attacked the clerk.

“He was trying to lock the door. The robber put gun on his face and pushed him to the floor and shot him,” said friend Paltu Roy.

Police said the gunman took a carton of cigarettes before leaving the store.

“He went inside the counter, picked up all the money from the register,  picked up a carton of cigarettes and ran out,” Roy said.

Detectives are working to narrow down when the shooting took place. It may have been hours before the victim was found.

Police said Pada lived in a back room apartment behind the convenience store.

Some neighbors left flowers and notes near the front door of the convenience store on Monday.

Friends said Pada just moved to Atlanta from Iowa three months ago.

“He was a young guy, though. I hate that it happened to him,” said Michael Foster, who knew Pada.

Foster has lived in the Norwood neighborhood his whole life. He said Sunday’s violence is not normal. He hopes police will be able to find the person responsible for the shooting.

“This is sad, it doesn’t happen here,” said Foster.

WSBTV