DETROIT, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The Michigan Court of Appeals has dismissed a manslaughter charge against a Detroit gas station clerk, Al-Hassan Aiyash, who locked the door moments before an irate customer shot three bystanders, killing one.

Prosecutors had argued that Aiyash’s decision to trap the customer inside made him partially responsible for the deadly outcome. However, the court ruled that an involuntary manslaughter charge was not appropriate.

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According to the court, it was “not reasonably foreseeable” that the customer, Samuel McCray, would pull a gun and start shooting. The incident occurred in May 2023 when McCray’s frustration over a failed $3.80 snack purchase escalated into violence. Surveillance footage revealed McCray cursing and threatening to take the items before Aiyash locked the door, trapping an angry customer and three innocent customers inside.

The latest twist in this ongoing saga came when the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed a decision to hold the gas station attendant criminally responsible for the tragic events that unfolded after he locked the doors.

A night of snacks turned deadly.

It all started when Samuel McCray, a Detroit local, went into a gas station just after 3 a.m. on May 6, 2023 with a craving for some snacks and drinks. After his card was declined, McCray became enraged and threatened to kill the attendant, telling him “come out here and get your brains on the floor” multiple times while demanding to leave with the unpaid goods.

Although it appeared that McCray was about to leave, Aiyash remotely locked the gas station’s door, trapping McCray and three other patrons inside despite their pleas for release. McCray then shot and killed one of the trapped patrons, 37-year-old Gregory Kelly, with nine bullets, while wounding two others during a barrage of gunfire inside the building.

Aiyash’s decision to lock the doors, combined with his taunting from behind bulletproof glass, certainly didn’t help matters. But was it enough to make him criminally responsible for Kelly’s death? The prosecution certainly thought so, charging him with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly creating the circumstances that led to the shooting. The district court initially agreed, binding Aiyash over for trial. However, the Michigan Court of Appeals, in a decision published on September 25, 2024, had a different view.

Who’s responsible when things escalate?

The heart of this legal debate revolves around whether Aiyash’s actions were a “proximate cause” of Kelly’s death. In plain English, the question is whether locking the door and egging McCray on directly led to the fatal shooting. While it appears that Aiyash played a part in escalating the situation by locking the door when tensions were high and mocking McCray, the court had to decide if it was reasonably foreseeable that McCray, who was already angry over his declined card, would shoot someone. The court decided it wasn’t.

Foreseeable or unforeseeable: the legal dilemma.

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This case hinged on whether McCray’s violent reaction was something Aiyash could have reasonably predicted. The defense argued that Aiyash couldn’t have known that McCray would pull out a gun and start shooting. The prosecution countered that McCray explicitly threatened to kill everyone in the store, so the possibility of violence wasn’t exactly out of the blue.

However, the court ultimately sided with Aiyash, determining that McCray’s actions were an “intervening cause” that severed the link between Aiyash’s decision to lock the door and Kelly’s death. In simpler terms, McCray’s decision to commit murder wasn’t something Aiyash could have reasonably foreseen, and therefore, Aiyash couldn’t be held criminally responsible for it.

The court’s take: was it criminal?

The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that Aiyash’s behavior didn’t rise to the level of criminal liability and ruled that McCray’s intentional misconduct – pulling a gun and shooting three people – was the real cause of Kelly’s death, not Aiyash’s poor decision-making.

This ruling doesn’t mean Aiyash is completely off the hook. The court made it clear that Aiyash could still face civil lawsuits from the victims or their families. The Wayne County prosecutor’s office is deciding on whether they will appeal the appeals court’s ruling.

After tragic choices, Detroit changes policy.

In the end, this tragic case is a grim reminder that even small decisions – like whether to lock a gas station door – can have devastating consequences. But when it comes to assigning blame, the courts decided that McCray, not Aiyash, was ultimately responsible for the night of violence.

In June of 2024, the city of Detroit banned gas stations from locking patrons inside their buildings through an ordinance that was voted on by the Detroit City Council.