Mississippi trio with charged with killing Louisiana gas station clerk

Published 5:53 am Tuesday, January 8, 2019

BOGALUSA — Three Mississippians are accused of robbing a Louisiana gas station and fatally shooting the clerk.

News outlets report 24-year-olds Melissa Smith and Lance Hunter Rouse and a 17-year-old boy are each in custody on $2.1 million bonds for charges including first-degree murder and armed robbery.

The three are accused of killing 53-year-old Abdulraham Alaquir Taleb in December outside a gas station near Bogalusa, Louisiana.

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The Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office says surveillance video shows Taleb working outside when the three suspects pulled into the gas station’s parking lot.

It says two of them got out of the vehicle with shotguns and confronted Taleb. It says they then walked past Taleb and robbed the store before fleeing the scene.

They were caught days later in Alabama.

It’s unclear if they have lawyers.