A North Carolina convenience store owner has been arrested after allegedly beating a customer who was having a seizure with a stick.
Sobhi Hassan is accused of hospitalising Gregory Evans inside the Princess Market in Rocky Mount, NBC affiliate WRAL reports.
According to some members of Mr Evans’ family, he was confronted by the 68-year-old clerk as the seizure began, which took place at around .30, on 22 December.
Video footage shows Mr Hassan striking the customer with a stick, to which he then groans in pain. The clerk continues the attack, all the while shouting “get out ... get out mother*****.”
“Police were able to arrest the employee after WRAL News sent the police a copy of the video this week to ask if any charges would be filed,” WRAL stated on Wednesday, via Lawandcrime.com.
Mr Hassan was arrested on Tuesday by the Rocky Mount Police Department and charged with simple assault, the report added.
As per WRAL, some members of the local community have been calling for the closure of the Princess Market in the wake of the attack. They claim that Mr Hassan has behaved in a “negative and discriminatory way” for several years, suggesting that the recently transpired video footage is the final straw.
“This community is lacking banking activity, this community is lacking a pharmacy, this community is lacking educational opportunities as well, so there’s so much that could really go on here,” Rocky Mount resident Bronson Williams claimed.
“We’ve got to restore value back here in this community so that people can know that they do matter.”
A community forum was held at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on Monday, where the victim’s sister, Edith Cooper, gave an update on Mr Evans’s condition.
“He’s a little slow, and he still doesn’t have full mobility of his body at this time,” Ms Cooper said, according to WRAL. “But he’s okay.”
