Authorities in Palmetto, Florida say 25-year old Devin Chandler walked into the Snappy Kwick Store on 17th Street West early Monday morning and gunned down store employees and brothers Khasem Yosuef, 23, and Faares Yousef, 17. Surveillance video shows Chandler entering the store, picking up a few items, and proceeding to the counter where he shot the young men execution style before fleeing the scene. He is still on the run and may be driving a blue 2000-2005 blue Chevrolet Impala.
The brothers are not usual employees of the store, but were filling in as a favor to their father who owns the establishment so that store employees could have the Labor Day holiday off. ‘I feel really bad. I saw them yesterday in Tampa. I just can’t believe that,’ the brothers’ cousin Omar Suleiman told WFLA in a highly emotional interview on Monday. ‘They don’t work here usually, but they worked here today.’
“The individual went into the store. The two employees who were killed were at the front counter. He just point-blank walked up and shot them, just shot them in the head,” says Chief Scott Tyler who also confirmed they were able to identify Devin Chandler as the shooter from surveillance video in the store.
Chandler is a convicted felon who was released from prison in September 2011, after serving less than two years on a three-year sentence for attempted armed robbery with a weapon. According to court records, Chandler walked into a convenience store in Bradenton with a handgun, jumped over the counter and demanded money from the store clerk. The robbery was interrupted by the clerk’s co-worker and Chandler tried to run away, but the clerk held Chandler by his shirt and fought him until police arrived.
He is currently still on probation and his last known residence is approximately three blocks from the convenience store at the center of Monday’s double murder.
Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information leading to Chandler’s arrest, in addition to a separate $10,000 reward offered by the Yousef family. Chandler is considered armed and extremely dangerous, and anyone who comes into contact with him should call their local law enforcement or 9-1-1 immediately. Persons with any information about these crimes are urged to call the Detective Chad Oyler at 941-224-4988 or the Manatee County Crime Stoppers at 1-866-634-TIPS (8477).
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