BATON ROUGE,LA — Abdullah Muflahi — the owner of the Triple S Food Mart convenience store that was the scene of the police-involved shooting death of Alton Sterling early last Tuesday — told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that he did not witness anything that confirms CNN’s report that a homeless man called 911 after Sterling allegedly brandished a gun.
A video taken by the store owner and released last week shows police removing what appears to be a gun from Sterling’s pocket immediately after the shooting. The store owner had also said in previously published media reports that he saw police remove the gun from his pocket.
Stranahan: So CNN reported that a 911 call came in from a homeless person, saying that he’d been asking Alton Sterling for money and that Alton showed him a weapon. And obviously you were here — how does that statement from an anonymous senior law enforcement official — how does that comport with what you personally saw?
Muflahi: Whether it happened or not, it doesn’t change what happened to Alton.
Stranahan: But did you see anything like that?
Muflahi: I did not. I did not hear anything about that. I did not see that happen. It’s not for Mr. Sterling to do such a thing. I mean, if it’s a homeless person, I don’t think he’s that much of a threat to Mr. Sterling for him to even show a weapon.
Stranahan: And you mentioned earlier, you do sometimes get homeless people out here.
Muflahi: Some, from time to time. We ask them to leave, they go along with their business. There are some that come along here; they’ll ask, “hey, can we clean your parking lot for 2 bucks so I can get to the shelter home?” And personally, I do help them as much as I can. And so does Mr. Sterling. He used to always help them. He used to pay them to help clean around the area that he’s sitting around or just to help them clean the trash around the building, even though it’s not his property. But him being out there, he wanted it to be clean. He used to get them to help out, and he would go into the store and buy ’em something to eat or drink.
Stranahan: And just to confirm — the CNN report — you saw, heard nothing?
Muflahi: I did not. I did not see that.
https://youtu.be/TIHavW2ZQG4
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