The man accused of shooting a New Orleans police officer Thursday night (April 11) at a Shell gas station convenience store in Mid-City had been roaming the aisles and was told to leave several times before the confrontation with the officer, according to the cashier who was working at the time.

The officer, who NOPD has not identified, was shot around 9:15 p.m. Thursday while responding to a call of a suspicious person at the Shell station at the corner of Tulane Avenue and Jefferson Davis. Police said the officer was trying to pat down a man matching the description of the reported suspicious person when a struggle erupted. The officer was shot in the leg.

Police have arrested Michael Baker, 18, in the shooting. The officer is recovering at home after being released from the hospital, police said Friday morning.

Mahmoud Ayesh was working the tail end of his Thursday shift at the gas station store when the shooting happened. He said he didn’t have a direct view of the struggle from behind the register, but “heard screaming, and then a shot.” He said the parking lot outside the store was filled with blue lights and police cruisers within seconds.

“They came quick,” Ayesh said.

18-year-old booked in shooting of New Orleans police officer in Mid-City

Prior to the shooting, Ayesh said he had been trying get the man who was involved in the struggle with the officer to leave the store. But he said he didn’t call police, and doesn’t know who did.

Ayesh said it was just after 9 p.m. Thursday when a man entered the store and started slowly walking the aisles, occasionally looking at his phone. He appeared to be with a woman, who was standing outside, Ayesh said. Ayesh didn’t recognize either of them, which he said stood out to him. The store has a pretty regular group of customers and he knows most of the people who walk through the door, he said.

At one point, Ayesh said he and the man made eye contact. He got a bad feeling.

“I thought he was trying to steal from us,” Ayesh said, so he kicked him out.

Ayesh said the man and the woman continued to linger by the store’s entrance. The man entered at least two other times and was asked to leave, before he entered again and went toward the bathroom at the rear of the store.

A police officer entered the store shortly afterward, Ayesh said. Ayesh recalls the officer explaining to him that police had received a report that there were multiple people with weapons inside the store.

New Orleans police officer, injured in shooting, released from hospital Friday morning

Ayesh said he saw the officer walk up to the man, now identified as Baker, near the store’s walk-in beer cooler. He heard them exchange a few words. At one point, Ayesh said he heard the officer tell the man to “stop resisting” and then he heard a shot.

“It happened so quickly,” Ayesh said.

Ayesh said police swarmed the store within seconds of the shot being fired. He said police arrested the woman who was with the man after she entered the store, appearing to try to help the man. Police later said the woman was booked on outstanding warrants unrelated to what happened Thursday night.

Shortly afterward, officers told Ayesh to leave the store as they investigated the scene. He said police took the store’s security video footage to review what happened.

On Friday morning, the store was busy with customers stopping in for coffee, energy drinks and cigarettes. The smell of cleaning chemicals and cigarettes hung in the air. Regular customers greeted Ayesh and his co-workers with a friendly “hey baby” and asked how they were holding up.

Tanishika Cocroft lives nearby off Jefferson Davis Parkway and stops into the store every day. Cocroft said there’s no reason something like Thursday’s shooting should happen at the store, which she said “welcomes any and every one.”

Hearing the news “really hurt my heart,” Cocroft said.

The night-shift cashier, who asked to be identified only as Beezi, said he re-opened the store to customers around midnight. He had spent the early part of his shift deep cleaning the area where the officer was shot. Just before 9 a.m. Friday, all that remained was shiny tile flooring and signs advertising Miller and Coors.

Ayesh grabbed a coffee and a cigarette of his own and stood smoking near the door. He’s fine, he said. Bad things happen, he added. He’s just glad no one was killed.

Just before 9:30 a.m., he smiled and held the door open for an approaching customer. He flicked his cigarette to the ground, and went back to work.