MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A South Florida liquor store clerk who was shot on the job is happy things didn’t go worse for him.
The suspect in the December 7th shooting at Jenson’s Liquors, located at 7920 N. Miami Ave., just outside of the Miami city limits, has been identified as 34-year-old Norman Wright Jr.
The man he shot, 71-year-old Emmanuel Taylor, said Wright was just a disgruntled customer.
“Well I’m ecstatic that he got arrested because he could be doing this to somebody else,” said Taylor. “We gotta keep these people off the street.”
Surveillance video showed Wright approaching the counter at approximately 5:48 p.m. on that December day.
He demanded a refund, and when Taylor explained that the store doesn’t give refunds, Wright appeared to become agitated.
In the video, he reached through the glass divider and grabbed a bottle of liquor before heading for the exit.
There was an argument and that’s when Wright pulled out a gun.
The conversation moved outside where Wright fell over and fired a single shot.
“The county is a safer place to be after we made this arrest,” said Miami-Dade Police Detective Ernest Bandiera.
After realizing he was shot, Taylor raised his shorts, revealing the gunshot wound,
That’s when Wright jumped on a bicycle and rode away, still armed and still holding on to the stolen bottle of liquor.
Fast forward two months and Taylor is now out of the hospital and in good spirits, excited to get back to his normal life.
“We had things on him that we knew he was going to get caught,” Taylor said. “Life was good before all this stuff happened. I’m gonna be living my life pretty much the same.”