Atlanta business heartbroken after storefront is ransacked during George Floyd riots
Attom Concept Store's owner and manager share their story on 'Fox & Friends.'
The owner of a clothing store in Atlanta told “Fox & Friends” on Monday that he “lost everything” after his business was looted and vandalized during riots sparked by the death of George Floyd.
“I came to the United States to make my dreams come true and then now we just don’t know if we’re going to reopen,” said Zola Dias, an immigrant and the owner of Attom Concept Store.
Kris Shelby, the store manager, who lives near Attom, said that around 1:00 a.m. on Friday he heard glass breaking as he was standing on his balcony.
“I see people running, and then I look down at our store and I just see a sledgehammer and like a bar that holds the ropes to block people off, I seen one of those go through our window and all I could do was just sit back and say, 'That’s a wrap on that,’” Shelby said.
“And as bad as I wanted to go down there and Zola was like ‘I know you want to go down there, but we need to just sit back for our safety and we need to just take care of it tomorrow morning.’
GEORGE FLOYD DEATH: THE CITIES WHERE PEOPLE ARE PROTESTING AND RIOTING
“But we already knew the damages that were being done,” he continued.
The protests were sparked by the May 25 death of Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis cop, Derek Chauvin, was seen kneeling on his neck in a viral video. Chauvin has been fired and charged with third-degree murder, and the federal Justice Department has been investigating the case. Crowds across the nation have seized on the racially charged incident to demand justice, but the protests have devolved into riots in many cities, culminating in a weekend of carnage.
“Insurance doesn’t cover everything and to be honest right now we don’t even know if insurance is going to cover anything,” Shelby said on Monday.
Dias added that the damage from the looting and vandalism adds to the loss from the temporary closure of his store, which was ordered as a way to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Shelby and Dias said on Saturday when they came to the store to assess the damage, 15 police officers showed up to check on the store. They said someone had called the police on them, thinking they were breaking into the store.
“I mean at the end of the day, we understand, but it’s like what was this all about?” he asked. “Is it because we’re black-owned and from the looks of it because of what’s going on right now someone is like, ‘They must be some African Americans sitting down there breaking into the store?’
“But it’s like, we own this store, we’ve been here now for four years and for someone to sit there and call the police on us and for them to walk up on us 15 deep, 15 police officers deep with everything they got going on in the city right now, the last thing you all need to be worrying about is if a few guys are sitting here making sure their store is being taken care of and being boarded up,” Shelby continued.
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“It was just not right at all."
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