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Heartbreaking' Video Shows the Moment a Ferguson Store Owner Processes What Looters Have Done. But This Isn't Just Any Business...
Image via Vine

Heartbreaking' Video Shows the Moment a Ferguson Store Owner Processes What Looters Have Done. But This Isn't Just Any Business...

"This is the kind of behaviour that fuels racism, destroys economies and creates ghettos."

Amid the chaos and smoke from burning buildings in Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday night, one ransacked business stood out: Ferguson Market and Liquor, the very store Michael Brown was shown on video robbing before he was fatally shot.

On the scene, Paul Hampel posted video to Vine which he said showed the owner of the store sadly surveying the wreckage.

When Hampel asks if the owner is alright, he merely responds, "Yes sir."

The video is only a few seconds long, but commenters online noted the tragic circumstances: the man whose store was robbed in the first place — yet who reportedly didn't go to the police to "snitch" for fear of his life — seeing his life's work destroyed by looters.

The man may even be the same man who Brown was caught on camera physically abusing shortly before Brown was shot.

These images provided by the Ferguson Police Department show security camera footage from a convenience store in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 9, 2014, the day that Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer. A report released Friday, Aug. 15, 2014, by Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson says the footage shows a confrontation between Brown and an employee at the store. The report says that Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, stole a box of cigars from the store shortly before Brown’s death. (AP Photo/Ferguson Police Department) These images provided by the Ferguson Police Department show security camera footage from a convenience store in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 9, 2014, the day that Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer. A report released Friday, Aug. 15, 2014, by Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson says the footage shows a confrontation between Brown and an employee at the store. The report says that Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, stole a box of cigars from the store shortly before Brown’s death. (AP Photo/Ferguson Police Department)

"Saddest thing I've seen tonight," one Reddit user wrote. "That right there is the look of defeat if I've ever seen one."

Another commenter took the looters to task:

That shop is [the owner's] pride and joy, he probably spends 15 hours a day there 7 days a week. Anyone who destroys another person's life in order to protest a decision made by a Jury, purely because of their shops proximity to the courthouse should die. This is the kind of behaviour that fuels racism, destroys economies and creates ghettos. Who the f**k will want to stay in Ferguson after this?

Ferguson Market and Liquor store is vandalized after the announcement of the grand jury decision Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. A grand jury has decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed, black 18-year-old whose fatal shooting sparked sometimes violent protests. (AP/Jeff Roberson) Ferguson Market and Liquor store is vandalized after the announcement of the grand jury decision Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. A grand jury has decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed, black 18-year-old whose fatal shooting sparked sometimes violent protests. (AP/Jeff Roberson)

A third commenter called the owner's face "heartbreaking," and said, "he looks like a small business owner immigrant, working hard to make his American dream a reality and s**t blew up in his face for no reason or fault of his own."

This story has been updated.

Follow Zach Noble (@thezachnoble) on Twitter

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