NYC worker shoots and kills man he said had tried to rob pot dispensary, police detain worker

A worker at a marijuana dispensary was detained after he shot and killed a man he said had tried to rob the shop more than once.

Police said that the worker shot 23-year-old Romel Carey in the head at around 12:20 a.m. on Wednesday morning at the Top Shelf dispensary in the Bronx.

The worker said that Carey had walked into the shop earlier on Tuesday evening at about 11:40 p.m. and brandished a weapon but that the worker brandished his own weapon and scared him away.

He says Carey came back later that night, and he was forced to shoot him in the head.

The alleged thief was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, and the worker was detained as a "person of interest."

WABC-TV obtained footage from a surveillance video outside the store showing Carey walk into the store before adjusting his mask and appearing to grab something in his jacket. A few seconds later, he ran out after the shooting and fell to the floor.

They reported that a gunshot had shattered a door on a refrigerator at the shop, and there was a bullet casing on the floor.

A resident of the neighborhood told WABC that the dispensary had only recently opened up at the location.

"It just became a dispensary like maybe a month, month and a half," said the man named only Tito. "It was a deli where you can buy your food, coffee, and the typical stuff."

Bodega and Small Business group founder Francisco Marte said that thieves were targeting smoke shops because they know they are cash businesses.

"They are being targeted by the criminals because they know they have money or they have stuff that they can resell and make money," he said.

Here's more about the lethal shooting in the Bronx:

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