Clerk accused of shooting man to death over $1 bag of gas station candy



ST. LOUIS – A 39-year-old St. Louis gas station clerk is charged with shooting and killing a person he thought had taken a bag of candy from his store.

The shooting happened September 26 at a gas station in the 2800 block of N. Florissant Avenue, according to court documents.

The victim, Christopher Simmons, was a customer at the gas station when he got into an argument with the store clerk, identified as Taleb Rebhi Ali Jawher.

Jawher accused Simmons of stealing a bag of candy worth approximately $1.10 and pointed a handgun at him, prosecutors say. Simmons then left the store. Jawher followed him outside and allegedly shot Simmons in the back of the head.

Simmons did not steal or leave the store with the candy, police said.

"We're just trying to find some peace," Simmons' mother, Dorothy Simmons, told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. "He was a wonderful young man who was taken from us too soon."

Jawher was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action, according to the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office.