Online reporting about the killing that matches the details provided identifies the victim as Anthony McNary, a 25-year-old Black man from Detroit. In the early-morning hours of June 5, 2023, he walked into a gas-station convenience store along Vernor Highway, a routine stop that turned tense in seconds—an argument sparked when the clerk said McNary pocketed a piece of beef jerky.
According to authorities, the clerk, Moad Mohamed Al-Gaham, confronted him and went through his pockets to retrieve the snack, placing it back on the shelf. McNary tried to pay anyway, but the clerk refused the money and forced him out. Once McNary was outside, the clerk manually locked the doors, putting a glass barrier between them. A short time later—while still inside the locked store—authorities say the clerk produced a handgun, lined it up with McNary’s forehead through the glass, and fired, striking him in the head.
Police were dispatched to the station shortly after the shot was reported and found McNary on the ground with a gunshot wound to his forehead; officials said he was unarmed. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Prosecutors charged Al-Gaham with first-degree murder and felony firearm, and he was arraigned and remanded to jail as the case moved into the court process.
As the case unfolded, investigators and prosecutors pointed repeatedly to the locked-door moment—an instant that, in their telling, separated fear from force and turned a dispute into a killing. Police also shut down the gas station after the shooting, with reporting indicating it was operating without a license.
The criminal case ultimately ended in a conviction for second-degree murder, and the sentencing phase briefly stalled when court paperwork errors were flagged in a pre-sentencing report. On June 27, 2025, Al-Gaham was sentenced to 20 to 50 years in prison on the second-degree murder conviction, and additional time was ordered for the felony-firearm count, with credit for time served noted in court records.
Alongside the criminal prosecution, the shooting also ignited a civil fight: McNary’s family, represented by Fieger Law, filed a $100 million lawsuit against ExxonMobil in Wayne County Circuit Court, arguing the company should be held accountable in connection with what happened at the station. In the aftermath, family statements described a grief that didn’t lift with the verdict—only a grim sense that a measure of justice had been recorded, even as the loss remained permanent.
