toledoblade.com --

Customers who came up a little short on their bills at the Lewis Carryout could always count on Bassam Kanouh.

The smiling, friendly store clerk, known by many as “Sam,” regularly loaned money to those in need.

But during his shift Thursday night, family members believe someone may have tried to rob Mr. Kanouh, 46. He was shot inside the West Toledo store, 4252 Lewis Ave., and later died.

“I hope they get him, catch him [whoever did this],” Diane Kanouh, the victim's wife of 17 years, said from their Perrysburg Township home yesterday. “They robbed him of [a few] dollars. But we were robbed of our life.”

As word spread across Toledo yesterday morning of Mr. Kanouh's death, police responded — just 13 hours after the first incident — to another deadly shooting slightly more than two miles away.

Zoom | Photo Reprints

There they found Carl Drake, 23, of Toledo lying next to a bicycle near 730 Maywood Ave. after he was shot in the chest.

A caller had reported hearing shots fired about 10:17 a.m. Bullet holes could be seen in a nearby home.

In both cases, police were still searching for suspects last night. Both men were shot once and died later in Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo.

Their deaths mark the 23rd and 24th slayings this year in the city. Last year, 20 people were killed in Toledo.

Sgt. Phil Toney said Mr. Kanouh was shot in the “lower abdomen area” and appeared at one point as if he would survive the 9:15 p.m. attack.

After offering support to owners of Lewis Carryout, the Rev. Will Collier leaves the Lewis Avenue store where clerk Bassam Kanouh was fatally shot Thursday night.
( THE BLADE/LISA DUTTON )

Zoom | Photo Reprints

Although there was a camera in the store, it was either not working properly or attached to monitors only because police were not able to recover a recording of the incident, Sergeant Toney said.

In following protocol, detectives were scouring the immediate vicinity to see if any other cameras were available and if they recorded any part of the incident on film.

The motive of the shootings remains under investigation.

“We don't know that,” Sergeant Toney said of whether the shooter was in the store to rob it. “He was the only one in the store, he and the person who shot him.”

The sergeant asked people with information on either death to call CrimeStopper at 255-1111.

While police search for Drake's and Mr. Kanouh's killers, a man accused in another shooting death of a convenience store employee awaits trial in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

Anthony Belton, 23, of 934 Cuthbert Rd. is charged in the Aug. 13, 2008, death of Matthew Dugan. He faces one count of aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated robbery and faces the death penalty if convicted.

Mr. Belton is accused of shooting Mr. Dugan, 34, once in the back of the head during a robbery at the former BP gas station on Secor Road and Dorr Street. According to police, he entered the convenience store at about 7 a.m., approached the counter with a drink, and then pulled a gun while demanding money.

He allegedly shot Mr. Dugan after the clerk turned around in response to an order to retrieve telephone cards from behind the counter. The incident was recorded on the store's surveillance cameras.

A Feb. 22 trial date before Judge Ruth Ann Franks has been scheduled.

Mr. Kanouh was working the 5-to-11 p.m. shift at Lewis Carryout when he was shot, Amel Smidi, the store's co-owner, said while choking on tears.

She was at the store yesterday, greeting customers who came to learn the news — or express their sorrow. Some of them brought flowers and left them by the front door to honor Mr. Kanouh.

Besides his wife, surviving Mr. Kanouh are his daughters, Natalie Stuard, 21, and Sara Kanouh, 17; son, Alex Kanouh, 15; grandson, Adam Stuard, 4, and brother, Bashar Kanouh, 48.

Mrs. Kanouh said her husband, a Syrian-born machinist who moved to the area about 1990, was a kind-hearted man who had worked as a machinist at several Ohio firms before he was hired as a store clerk.

“He would bring homeless people home and feed them because they were hungry, even when we did not have a lot of money,” she said. “He was a very nice guy. He would take a shirt off his back to help anybody.”

Darlene Meach, a convenience store customer who lives less than a block away, said Mr. Kanouh had a ready smile and would often let customers borrow some of his money to pay for a purchase if they were a little short.

Ms. Meach, one of the people who brought flowers to the store, said she last saw him about 7 p.m. Thursday, about two hours before he was shot. He was “just happy-go-lucky, talking on the phone to someone,” she said.

“He was a great worker and he was a very friendly guy. And he had a sense of humor. I liked him,” said Omar Smidi, Amel Smidi's husband and the store's co-owner, who was working the counter yesterday, before he got emotional and turned away.

Mrs. Smidi said Mr. Kanouh was hired less than a year ago and has since become very popular with regular customers.

“He was a very friendly guy, very close to people. Customers adored him,” Mrs. Smidi said. “And he was always showing magic tricks to my children, always playing with them. We will miss him.”

In July, 2006, there was a robbery at the same business. Two men entered the convenience store, and one pointed a handgun at an employee and demanded money from the cash register. The men fled after getting an undisclosed amount of money, police said.

Mr. Kanouh would have turned 47 tomorrow. Mrs. Kanouh said the family hasn't made any funeral arrangements yet.

Family members and friends of Drake declined to comment yesterday. He had drug abuse and trafficking charges pending against him in Toledo Municipal Court.

Staff writer Carl Ryan contributed to this report.

Contact Mike Sigov at:sigov@theblade.com,or 419-724-6089.

Permanent Link