Daughter of shopkeeper, sees him being killed on CCTV during robbery
November 29, 2010 07:25 am
Officers outside Select Convenience Store in
Kingstanding, Birmingham,
last night where the shopkeeper was stabbed. He was pronounced dead at the
scene
The teenage daughter of a Lankan born shopkeeper in UK stabbed to death during a suspected robbery watched in horror as the attack was shown on CCTV in the family’s flat upstairs.
She saw attackers armed with a knife try to grab cash from the till, and called the police.
The 48-year-old shop owner was found dead with three stab wounds. Another shop worker suffered head injuries and is recovering in hospital.
Saturday evening’s attack came as leaked documents suggested a Tory pledge to jail thousands of knife thugs would be ditched. The move risks a public outcry over offenders escaping prison with a community punishment instead.
The victim was Suppiah Tharmaseelan who ran the Select Convenience Store in Kingstanding, Birmingham.
He and his 34-year-old wife Sangeetha had lived above the shop with their two sons and daughter, who is thought to be 15, for about a year. The family are originally from Sri Lanka.
Officers were called to the shop, also known as Haresh’s Superstore, at 9.50pm on Saturday.
Abid Hussain, 40, who owns a takeaway next door, said Mr Tharmaseelan was a hard-working family man who had never experienced trouble before.
‘The family told me that a few people came inside and that they wanted money and they tried to get it from the till,’ he said.
‘They had a knife and the family said his daughter witnessed the whole thing and called the police.
‘His wife had been in France visiting family and her relatives told her to come back because her husband had been injured. They did not want to tell her he had died because they didn’t want to panic her.’
Mr Hussain added: ‘I saw him just hours before he died and he was very happy serving customers and he told me his business was going well.
‘I can’t believe that he is no longer in this world over just a few hundred pounds.
‘He’d never had trouble before. There are kids who hang around here, but you let them get on with it and you don’t say anything and it’s fine.’ West Midlands police said Mr Tharmaseelan had been found with stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
A spokesman said four men were seen running from the shop following the stabbing.
The spokesman added: ‘At this stage the motive for the attack seems to be a robbery.’
Witnesses said that two people were captured on a nearby shop’s CCTV running from the store and into a waiting car.
Mr Hussain added: ‘A police officer told me he was stabbed three times and he was dead on the spot.
‘This is society now, it can happen anywhere.’
He said those who owned shops on the same parade were now very cautious and had asked the police for reassurance.
Police said a post mortem examination would be carried out in ‘due course’, adding that officers would be carrying out extra patrols in the area throughout the day ‘to reassure the community’.
A man and a woman, both in their twenties, from the Sutton Coldfield area, have been arrested on suspicion of murder.
dailymail.co.uk
The teenage daughter of a Lankan born shopkeeper in UK stabbed to death during a suspected robbery watched in horror as the attack was shown on CCTV in the family’s flat upstairs.
She saw attackers armed with a knife try to grab cash from the till, and called the police.
The 48-year-old shop owner was found dead with three stab wounds. Another shop worker suffered head injuries and is recovering in hospital.
Saturday evening’s attack came as leaked documents suggested a Tory pledge to jail thousands of knife thugs would be ditched. The move risks a public outcry over offenders escaping prison with a community punishment instead.
The victim was Suppiah Tharmaseelan who ran the Select Convenience Store in Kingstanding, Birmingham.
He and his 34-year-old wife Sangeetha had lived above the shop with their two sons and daughter, who is thought to be 15, for about a year. The family are originally from Sri Lanka.
Officers were called to the shop, also known as Haresh’s Superstore, at 9.50pm on Saturday.
Abid Hussain, 40, who owns a takeaway next door, said Mr Tharmaseelan was a hard-working family man who had never experienced trouble before.
‘The family told me that a few people came inside and that they wanted money and they tried to get it from the till,’ he said.
‘They had a knife and the family said his daughter witnessed the whole thing and called the police.
‘His wife had been in France visiting family and her relatives told her to come back because her husband had been injured. They did not want to tell her he had died because they didn’t want to panic her.’
Mr Hussain added: ‘I saw him just hours before he died and he was very happy serving customers and he told me his business was going well.
‘I can’t believe that he is no longer in this world over just a few hundred pounds.
‘He’d never had trouble before. There are kids who hang around here, but you let them get on with it and you don’t say anything and it’s fine.’ West Midlands police said Mr Tharmaseelan had been found with stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
A spokesman said four men were seen running from the shop following the stabbing.
The spokesman added: ‘At this stage the motive for the attack seems to be a robbery.’
Witnesses said that two people were captured on a nearby shop’s CCTV running from the store and into a waiting car.
Mr Hussain added: ‘A police officer told me he was stabbed three times and he was dead on the spot.
‘This is society now, it can happen anywhere.’
He said those who owned shops on the same parade were now very cautious and had asked the police for reassurance.
Police said a post mortem examination would be carried out in ‘due course’, adding that officers would be carrying out extra patrols in the area throughout the day ‘to reassure the community’.
A man and a woman, both in their twenties, from the Sutton Coldfield area, have been arrested on suspicion of murder.
dailymail.co.uk
