DETROIT – The longtime owner of a liquor store on Detroit's west side was shot dead Tuesday morning.
Witnesses outside the Medicine Chest on Dexter Avenue near West Chicago Boulevard said 63-year-old Faraj "Freddy" Dally was robbed and shot twice when he got out of his car to open the store for the day at about 9 a.m.
Family, friends and former customers gathered Tuesday night at the store to hold a candlelight vigil.
Customers said Dally was well-known in the area for helping people out when they were short of cash. Dally had owned the store since the 1970s.
"I've been knowing Freddy since I was 14 and I'll be 60 years old in October," said Houston Speight. "He was a very kind man to everybody."
He also hired people from the neighborhood to work for him.
Tina Moore said she worked her first job as a single teen mom 20 years ago in Dally's store.Â
Detroit Police Sgt. Daran Carey said he first met Freddy 26 years ago when Carey first started walking the beat in the 10th Precinct, the west side.Â
A memorial of balloons continues to grow just hours after his murder.
Police said he could have been targeted because he had extra money on him to cash checks, since it was the first of the month.
Dally's family members rushed to the scene and had to be held back by police.
Dally was the former chairman of the Associated Food and Petroleum Dealers, an organization representing 4,000 party store and gas station owners in Michigan and surrounding states.
The organization is offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in Dally's death.
Police have only a vague description, two black males wearing scarfs over their faces and driving a dark SUV, possibly a Dodge Journey.