Questions since shooting trouble Prineville store workers

Employees at Towne Pump and Pantry in Prineville said Friday they’re being interrogated for a shooting they had nothing to do with. But it’s not the cops giving them the third degree — it’s some of their customers.

“It was just uncomfortable, trying to answer every fifth person within the span of an hour and explain to them. ‘No it wasn’t me. It wasn’t my brother. It wasn’t my family. We are not related,'” Haseeb Shojai said Friday.

Shojai has owned Towne Pump for about a decade, until now without any issues. But things changed after Omar Araim allegedly opened fire at a Prineville bar on New Years Eve, critically injuring a Bend man.

“I think they associated that with this place, because of the subject’s first name,” Shojai said.

“They were coming inside the store, and they were asking me, ‘Hey, do you know this guy?'” employee David Sayidi said.

Sayidi came from Afghanistan, where he spent years as a translator for the U.S. Marine Corps. He said people should not assume everyone from the Middle East knows each other.

Sayidi said he loves his customers and has never had to deal with anything like this before. But now some of those customers he loves are the ones questioning him.

“That’s what makes me really disappointed,” Sayidi said. “We really like them. We always want them to come to the store. We always want to see them. And they are asking us these questions. It’s sad.”

Workers said it’s heartbreaking to watch.

“I’m blown away. I’m blown away with the heartlessness of it all,” Candace Armosino said.

Employees said they don’t feel threatened, but they also don’t appreciate the questions.

“We are just as much a part of the community as everyone else,” Shojai said. “We might speak with an accent, but we are just as much a part and we are just as patriotic.”