Store employee murdered during robbery in Lake Wales

LAKE WALES (FOX 13) - A store clerk was shot at point-blank range around 2 a.m., just after locking the doors at QP convenience store on Scenic Highway early Thursday morning.

Investigators with the Lake Wales Police Department said surveillance video captured two hooded men running away after Mohamed Allam was killed.

"I think the biggest fear now is not getting these guys fast enough," said Deputy Chief of the Lake Wales Police Department, Troy Schultze.

Schultze said the attackers told Allam to take off his pants so they could take everything from his pockets. He did what they asked, but they shot him anyway.

Friends say Allam leaves behind a wife and two daughters.

"He was a sweetheart of a man," Ron Hood told FOX 13. "He would give anybody anything. There's really no reason, for this kind of brutality."

"I can't believe that I lost a friend to that kind of violence," said James Frazier.

Investigators suspect the robbers thought Allam had a bank deposit with him. They were wrong.

The video gives police have a close-up of what happened, but it is very blurry and doesn't  provide a lot of information. The image of the men running away is more clear, but they have their backs to the camera.

The first person on the scene was a driver who just happened to be passing by. The person saw Allam laying in a heap. So the driver rushed over, and jumped out of the car to help, but it was too late.

Detectives do have at least one lead. Five months ago, two hooded men held up a man power-washing a parking lot just down the street from QP. It also happened in the middle of the night. The suspects in that incident told the victim to take off his pants. He refused, and they robbed him. Fortunately, he was not hurt.

Allam's cell phone was recovered several miles from the scene near the junction of Evergreen drive and Hesperides Road. Investigators are processing the phone as evidence.