Waiting for the ambulance at Daily Food and Liquor: `We take care of them`

Nov. 15--Two men ran into Daily Food and Liquor on Saturday night and told Walid they had been shot.

He recognized them immediately -- they were regulars at the Lawndale convenience store where Walid has worked for years.

"They can trust us," he said. "We take care of them."

Call an ambulance, said one of the men, who leaned against the front counter and let Walid look at the wound.

He had been shot in the thigh, Walid said. Everything looked OK at first -- no blood. Then Walid pulled his clothing down a second time, just to be sure.

"There was blood all over his legs," Walid said.

Walid went to a nearby shelf and grabbed a black shirt wrapped in plastic. He ripped open the packaging. He held the shirt tight onto the man's leg while they waited for the ambulance.

Another regular customer had walked into the store in a puffy jacket, trailing little white feathers all over the floor. A bullet had gone through the sleeve of his coat, and he was angry about it.

"Ah, go buy a new jacket, man," Walid said later, crouched on the sidewalk smoking a cigarette. "Two hundred dollars? You spend that much on liquor."

In total, three men were shot near the corner of Arthington Street and Pulaski Road on Saturday night. All were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and their conditions were stabilized.

Daily Food and Liquor was now a crime scene. Walid went outside to smoke and tell passersby that they couldn't go in. It was warm for November, and sidewalk traffic was steady.

"Sorry, buddy."

"We're closed, baby, come back in half an hour."

"We're closed, cuz."

It wasn't the first time Walid had to tend to a gunshot victim. A few years ago, when he worked at a store on Ogden and Saint Louis avenues, someone ran in after being shot in the stomach. The bullet had gone straight through his back. Walid laid him down, got some towels, applied pressure.

His boss says he has a knack with customers.

"If you were coming up shot here, what would you want [me] to say?" Walid said. He'll treat people well, "even if they're bad."

The man who was shot in the thigh wasn't bad, Walid said. "He's not a banger. He doesn't sell drugs."

If he didn't have the money for his purchases, he'd be good for it soon. He recently bought a bottle of Anejo Patron tequila for another customer, an angry stranger, to calm him down.

"He doesn't even drink it!" Walid said. "He likes the Silver Patron."

Walid probably wouldn't see him again anytime soon, though.

"He got shot," Walid said. "He won't be coming around."

Shootings happen a lot on that block, Walid said, but this one made even the store's security guard cry.

After a while, police let Walid reopen the store. It was crowded with customers almost immediately. One walked up to the counter to buy a bottle of Colt 45 and looked at Walid with a smile.

"Walid, why you shoot all them people, man?" he said. Everyone laughed.

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