Police: Robber grabbed cash before shooting Durham store clerk four times

The Durham Police Department issued the so-called five-day report because officers shot the suspected robber, Dmarlo Johnson. The department's standard procedure in officer-involved shootings is to release preliminary information about the shooting within five business days.

According to the report, two people called 911 to report a robbery at Joy Food Mart, at 2109 N. Roxboro St., at about 12:45 a.m. on July 4. A man with a shirt pulled up over his face brandished a handgun as he walked in the store and ordered about a half-dozen customers out, the callers said.

Officers Cornell Richards and Joshua Conser arrived on the scene within minutes, and video from the dashboard camera in a patrol car shows them confronting the suspected robber as he left the store. The man pulled a gun from his waistband, pointed it at the officers and refused to drop it when ordered, according to the report.

Witnesses said the robber then fired at the two officers and ran into Roxboro Street as they returned fire. He was wounded in his left collarbone, left knee and left foot, and his upper left arm was grazed by a bullet, according to the report. Police recovered a 9 millimeter handgun nearby.

Officers went inside the store and found clerk Amer Mahmood, 48, of Durham, dead behind the counter.

Security camera footage from the store showed that Mahmood placed the cash drawer from the register on the counter and put his hands up when the robber came in and demanded money. The robber went behind the counter and then shot Mahmood three times, including once after he had collapsed on the floor, before grabbing the money and some cigarettes and leaving, the report states.

After dropping the money and cigarettes in his car, the robber is seen on security video returning to grab more cigarettes, shoot Mahmood a fourth time, fire shots at the security cameras and threaten customers. Police confronted him as he left the second time, according to the report.

Johnson, 26, of Durham, is charged with murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and assault on a government official. He is being held without bond in the Durham County jail.

Richards, Conser and Officer Jonathan Fullam, who also responded to the robbery and took part in the shootout with the robber, have been placed on administrative leave with pay, pending investigations by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Durham Police Department's Professional Standards Division and Criminal Investigations Division into Johnson's shooting. Such actions are standard procedure in an officer-involved shooting.