HOUSTON — The Houston gas station clerk who was shot in the face during an attempted robbery one week ago says he wants to see his shooter behind bars.
Ali Asghar said in an interview with KHOU 11 from his bed that he is afraid the man will kill someone if he is not arrested soon.
The entire attack was recorded by a surveillance camera and the robber’s face can clearly be seen.
Asghar, 28, was working his job behind the register of the Chevron station at Memorial Drive and 610 earlier this month when he was shot.
The surveillance video shows a man walk up to the counter, and without saying a work, shooting Asghar in the face.
WARNING: Some may find video of shooting disturbing
The shooter jumps over the counter and continues to attack Asghar and shoots him a second time in the arm.
“So the shot hit here,” Asghar says pointing to his cheek. “And the bullet, it is still inside right here.”
Asghar was released from the hospital over the weekend.
Although his family will not let him watch the surveillance video or news coverage about his attack, he remembers it well.
“The guy, he came and he didn’t ask me anything,” Asghar said. “He just shoots me. Even I asked him, ‘Do you, may I help you?’ And when I asked him he just started shooting.”
Asghar says he knew he had to do everything he could to get away.
“Again he tried to chase me and I ran outside to say to anyone, please help me,” Asghar said.
The clerk says his pleas for help from drivers passing by on Memorial Drive went unanswered once they saw his condition.
“Everyone, they’d just see me, and they just run,” Asghar said. “No one would stop. I tried to stop like four or five cars. No one stopped because everyone there saw a lot of bleeding, on my eyes and ears.”
Ali says he fell to the ground and had lost the strength to stand.
“I was about to die,” he said. “I called my family and my brother and said I’m almost done.”
He also called his boss to tell him what happened, and to say goodbye.
“I said to my owner, ‘Hey, someone killed me,' and 'Save my family, please, support my family.’”
Asghar says he lost consciousness after that.
Help ultimately arrived, and after three nights in the hospital, he was allowed to go home.
Unable to move the right side of his body, Ali can’t focus on recovering. He says he is too worried that he won’t be able to work again.
He can’t sleep either.
His brother says he has terrifying nightmares that won’t allow him to rest.
His greatest concern though, is that the shooter is still on the loose.
Asghar is frightened the shooter’s next victim will be killed.
“He will shoot anyone,” Asghar said. “Not just me. Anyone.”
A GoFundMe has been created to help Asghar with expenses related to his recovery and loss of work: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-ali-asghar-with-his-recovery.