Police Catch Store Clerks in Lie About Shooting

Nashville, Tennessee – Two employees of a Nashville gas station were arrested in connection with a shootout with a customer last Thursday night.

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) says two clerks working at Paul’s Market located at 1800 Jefferson St. told officers they were engaged in an argument with a female customer who they said was causing trouble.

They told the woman to leave the store and she retaliated and drew a gun. She fired at them, they said, then ran away.

But investigators arrested the two men after they viewed the stores surveillance and saw a much different story play out.

Law enforcement officials say 28-year-old Ayed Khawaf, and 23-year-old Abdulrahman Al Ammari are shown on the footage arguing with the woman through a window with her outside. Khawaf is then seen running outside and attacking the woman with a golf club, striking her in the face.

Left: 23-year-old Abdulrahman Al Ammari. Right: 28-year-old Ayed Khawaf. Photo: MNPD

At that point the woman draws a gun and fires at the ground between them in an attempt to ward off the assault.

When she turned and fled the area, Ammari is seen running out of the store with a gun, shooting in her direction. Besides wounds sustained by Khawaf’s golf club, the woman was otherwise uninjured and called police to report the shooting.

Both men were charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and booked into the Metropolitan jail with $30,000 bond. There are no reports of charges filed against the unidentified victim.

Paul’s Market has been in the news before because of a dangerous employee. In 2016, 53-year-old Andre Swett was arrested during a traffic stop for the fatal shooting of a customer on June 7, 2015.

Police say Swett was working as a clerk in the gas station when he became involved in an argument with 27-year-old Anthony Williams Jr.

Swett told detectives he’d shot and killed Williams because he’d felt threatened, but officers disagreed, and he was arrested.

Fortunately, there was video surveillance footage of this shooting or it would have been her word against the two gas station clerks and things may have played out differently for the victim.

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