On a late Thursday evening in March 2018, 17-year-old Dorian Harris walked into the Top Stop Shop convenience store in Memphis, Tennessee. His decision to leave with a beer he hadn't paid for set in motion a tragic chain of events. The store's clerk, 28-year-old Anwar Ghazali, saw the theft and, armed with a handgun, pursued Dorian out of the store. As Dorian walked away, Ghazali fired several shots in his direction.
After the shooting, Ghazali returned to the store and mentioned to a witness, 'I think I shot him,' but never alerted the authorities.
For two days, Dorian Harris's fate remained unknown. It wasn't until that Saturday afternoon, March 31, 2018, that a woman discovered his body next to her home, not far from the convenience store. Police who responded to her call found that Dorian had sustained a fatal gunshot wound to his thigh. Investigators noted he was wearing the same clothes as on the night of the incident at the Top Stop Shop. The discovery of his body launched a homicide investigation that quickly led back to the events of two nights prior.
The investigation into Dorian's death led to the swift arrest of Anwar Ghazali. He was initially charged with first-degree murder. During the legal proceedings, Ghazali's defense attorney argued that his client had not intended to kill the teenager but had fired the gun to scare him. Prosecutors, however, contended that Ghazali had taken it upon himself to be 'the judge, the jury and the executioner over a $2 beer.' In August 2019, a Shelby County jury convicted Anwar Ghazali of second-degree murder. His actions on that March night resulted in a lengthy prison sentence for the death of Dorian Harris.
