Video Shows Killer of Gas-Station Worker

September 6, 2012, 2:56 pm

By WENDY RUDERMAN

Police officials are offering a $12,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the two men who carried out the fatal armed robbery of a gas station in the Bronx, the chilling exchange captured by video surveillance cameras.

In the video (see below or Click to watch), one man, wearing a Giants sweatshirt with the hood pulled up over his head, approaches RC Petroleum in East Tremont on a bicycle about 9:40 p.m. on Tuesday. He walks into a small office, where an attendant, Lamin Sillah, 28, appears to be counting cash and receipts while hunched over the gas station's accounting ledger.

Mr. Sillah, who recently arrived in New York from Gambia, spi ns around and tries to grab the gun out of the robber's hand. The robber fires the gun, striking Mr. Sillah in the torso.

After Mr. Sillah fell to the floor, the police said, the gunman stood over him and fired again; the video segment released by the police did not show the shots. The gunman then rummaged through Mr. Sillah's pockets for money and dragged his body out of the office, the police said.

The gunman fled the gas station, at East 182nd Street and Southern Boulevard, with an undetermined amount of cash, while an accomplice, who acted as a lookout, stole $30 from an attendant outside. Both robbers fled on bicycles.

Mr. Sillah was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The outside attendant was unharmed.

Mr. Sillah began working at the gas station about two weeks ago. He was studying business at college, according to his uncle, Alhagie Ebou Cham.

“He was a quiet and studious man. He worked, studied a nd followed his religion, which was Muslim,” Mr. Cham said on Thursday.

Mr. Cham's nephew arrived in the Bronx from Gambia in November 2011, leaving behind his wife so he could finish his education and begin a career in business, Mr. Cham said.

Mr. Cham, who is president of the United Gambians Association, said violent crime, while down from 15 years ago, remained a problem that city officials and community leaders must continue to tackle. “These young people today do whatever comes into their minds,” he said of the men responsible for his nephew's death. “They don't have good relations with their families.”