Gas station clerk shares ordeal; employee protected woman from man who was killed in police-involved shooting

By Samantha Sosa, Ruben Rosario

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    PLANTATION, Florida (WSVN) — A Plantation convenience store clerk is opening up and sharing his story, one day after he provided protection to a woman running from her boyfriend in a series of chaotic events that would end in a fatal police-involved shooting.

The convenience store employee, who asked not to be identified, recounted what unfolded at the Mobile gas station along West Broward Boulevard, starting at around 5 a.m., Friday.

Surveillance video captured a silver Honda sedan pulling into the gas station. Moments later, the woman is seen walking into the store and locking the door behind her.

“Hi, can you please hide me?” the woman is heard saying to the clerk.

“She was telling me, ‘Could you hide me? Could you hide me?’” said the clerk.

Seconds later, the woman’s boyfriend was at the door.

“Please don’t open the door!” said the woman.

“She, at that moment, was panicking beyond belief,” said the clerk.

The clerk said he called police,, before the man started pounding at the door.

“He was just desperate to try to get her out of the gas station,” said the clerk.

At that point, the clever clerk led the woman into a back room and barricaded the door.

But then the employee came back out to find the boyfriend using the Honda to ram into the building over and over.

“I immediately was fearing for my life at that moment,” said the clerk.

The clerk said the boyfriend struck the entrance to the store three times with the vehicle.

“He had rammed it the third time, and he had come in briefly,” he said.

But just as the boyfriend made it inside the store, the sound of police sirens prompted him to flee.

Plantation Police detectives said the clerk’s quick actions may have saved the woman’s life.

Investigators identified the man as 30-year-old Roshod Graham. After he took off from the convenience store, they said, officers chased him all the way to Lauderhill, where he allegedly grabbed an officer’s gun.

Police said they were forced to fire, striking Graham.

Paramedics rushed the suspect to the hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.

“I was just trying to keep it together,” said the clerk.

Though he was was unsure why the woman was trying to get away from Graham, the clerk said he’s thankful he did what he could to help.

“Glad I had a calm head, ’cause if not, her and I would be potentially dead,” he said.

Late Saturday night, 7News cameras captured the front doors to the convenience store boarded up.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the police-involved shooting.

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