Matthew Dugan was wrapping up his midnight shift at a BP gas station in West Toledo yesterday when a man walked into the store about an hour after it opened.
The man stopped at the counter, walked back to a cooler and grabbed a drink, and then returned to the cash register, pulled out a gun, and demanded money.
Mr. Dugan, who had worked at BP only two months, handed the assailant an undetermined amount of money and then turned his back to him, according to video surveillance from the store at 3306 Dorr St., near Secor Road.
Moments later, he was shot once in the back of the head by the gunman, who then fled across Dorr Street and down Searles Road, police said.
Mr. Dugan, 34, who was pronounced dead at the scene about 7:50 a.m., died from a single gunshot wound in the head, said Dr. Diane Barnett, a Lucas County deputy coroner.
"When he turned around, he was probably expecting the guy to walk out the door," said a tearful Molly Dugan, 29, one of the victim's younger sisters. "He gave him everything. There was no reason. He was just doing his job."
Toledo police Capt. Ray Carroll said Mr. Dugan had turned around to get something, but said it didn't appear he had been ordered by the gunman to do so. He declined to release details.
Matthew Dugan's two sisters, Rachel Dugan, left, and
Molly Dugan, and his uncle, Lance Camargo, talk about
the shooting.
The captain said the robbery and shooting, which occurred about 7 a.m., appears to be random. No one had been arrested last night.
Natasha Jones, 29, who works at Taco Bell down the street, said she walked into the gas station to get some cigarettes just before 8 a.m. She noticed a few dollar bills and some coins on the counter. "Something is not right. I just felt it," she said.
Ms. Jones peered behind the counter, saw the victim lying in a pool of blood, and called police.
She and her husband then went behind the counter and nudged the victim to see if he was alive.
It's an image she can't get out of her head.
Matthew Dugan, 34, had worked at the station for two months.
"I can see the blood. I can see the guy," Ms. Jones said. "I wish I wouldn't have looked."
Samuel Baiz, the station's owner, declined to comment last night.
Mr. Dugan is the city's 12th homicide victim this year. There were 13 homicides last year.
He was the son of Tom Dugan, a longtime Toledo firefighter and former president of Local 92 of the International Association of Firefighters Local 92, who died of cancer in 2004.
Captain Carroll said the convenience store's doors are locked at midnight and open about 6 a.m.
He said Mr. Dugan did everything he was supposed to in that type of situation.
"He didn't fight him, he didn't try to grab the gun, he was cooperative," Captain Carroll said. "This was an unbelievably senseless crime. The kind of person who commits that kind of crime is not somebody anybody wants walking around in our community."
Nabil Shaheen, 45, who owns two convenience stores in Toledo, said he instructs his employees to comply with robbers' demands. A masked man walked into one of his stores at 5409 Dorr St. about five years ago, put a gun to his head, and demanded cash. Mr. Shaheen said he handed over the money and the man left.
But when he was robbed a second time by two men with guns, he refused to give them any money, and they left without a fight, he said.
"It's that moment when it happens [when you determine] how you're going to react," Mr. Shaheen said.
Molly Dugan said the only comfort their family has is that Mr. Dugan had his back turned to the gunman and may not have known what was coming.
"The person who did this doesn't realize how many people this affected," she said, crying.
The last fatal convenience-store shooting in Toledo was June 17, 2005, when two women were shot and killed at Barney's Convenient Mart, 5821 North Detroit Ave.
Susan Cox, 43, of Washington Township, and her co-worker, Shantel Hendrix, 27, of Bedford Township, were shot multiple times by Ms. Cox's estranged husband, Archie, 45. He then turned the gun on himself.
In January, 2004, Misada Shalan, 47, was killed while she sat behind a counter at Tamara's Carryout, 328 Columbus St.
Authorities said robber Pedro Diaz fired a handgun three times into the ceiling, apparently startling Ronald Whitfield, an accomplice, who fired an assault rifle at the victim's head.
BP station owner Samuel Baiz, center, and his son Issa Baiz, right, wait at the scene of the murder of Matthew Dugan in an early morning robbery.
(
THE BLADE/LISA DUTTON
)
Whitfield, 23, was convicted in 2004 of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery; Diaz, 30, was convicted of murder and aggravated robbery in 2005, and Yvan Garcia, driver of their getaway vehicle, was convicted last month of complicity to commit murder.
The suspect in Mr. Dugan's shooting was described as black, between 5 feet, 7 inches and 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and was wearing a dark hooded-sweatshirt and tan cargo pants, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stopper at 419-255-1111.
Staff writer Mike Sigov contributed to this report.
Contact Laren Weber at: lweber@theblade.com or 419-724-6050. Permanent Link
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