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Suspect in March robbery turns himself in to police
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Mohammad Darwish, owner of the NorthEnd Market, shows the injury he suffered to his left arm and hand during a robbery at his store March 12. A robber fired a shot at Darwish that hit him in the hand and then entered his stomach. The man took money and fled on foot. The suspect, Jacquavis K. Williams, turned himself in to police Thursday.
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Mohammad Darwish says he never had been robbed before March 12, 2011, despite 34 years in the Warren convenience-store business.
When it did happen, nothing about it went as he expected.
First off, the robber shot him before saying a word about a robbery, Darwish said. The man had walked up to the NorthEnd Market counter with a bag of potato chips.
“I walked to the counter and I says, ‘Here’s how much is this,’ and BAM!, he shot me,” Darwish said Thursday.
After firing the shot, the robber asked for money, and Darwish gave it to him.
On the way out of the store, the robber turned to a disabled elderly man who was standing near the counter.
“He was going to shoot the old man, and I said, ‘No, he’s an old man. Why you want to kill him?’ So he went out,” Darwish said.
The bullet that hit Darwish entered his left wrist, traveled to his hand and fingers, fracturing bones, then passed out into Darwish’s stomach.
The damage has left Darwish with limited use of his left hand, and the bullet damaged his colon and intestines.
“I’ve been running a business in Warren for 34 years, and it never crossed my mind that someone would do something like that. Never,” Darwish said.
Thursday evening, Jacquavis K. Williams, 21, of Wood Street in Warren turned himself in to Warren police after an arrest warrant was issued for him in the robbery.
Williams pleaded innocent to aggravated robbery Thursday in Warren Municipal Court and is being held in the Trumbull County jail in lieu of $250,000 bond. He returns to court at 10:15 a.m. Thursday.
Darwish said it’s a relief to know that Williams is off the street. He said Warren police did “good police work” to identify Williams as his assailant.
Itaf Darwish, Mohammad’s wife, said the incident was completely out of character for the store, which is on North Park Avenue in a residential area.
“We have really all good customers,” she said. “They were devastated, crying. One bad apple,” she said of the robber.
Customer Harmony Grieb was among hundreds of customers who signed a poster-sized get-well card for Darwish.
“I’ve known Mr. Mohammad for five years. If you ever need anything, he’d help you out,” she said. “He’s good to his customers.”
Williams was charged with misdemeanor assault May 15, 2011, for “sucker punching” a female witness in the face at 5:20 a.m. while police were talking to her about a shooting that had occurred on Fifth Street Southwest earlier that morning.
That case still is pending in Warren Municipal Court.
Williams was sentenced to one year in prison in September 2009 after pleading guilty to breaking and entering resulting from a break-in at the Jefferson Elementary School on Tod Avenue Southwest on April 27, 2009, when Williams was 19 years old.
He also was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle in July 2008, when he was 18. He was sentenced to probation, which he violated when he broke into the school the following year.