Crime & Safety

'It's Too Emotional': Family of Slain Store Owner to Close Shop

On Nov. 26, Karim Khamarko was fatally wounded during a botched robbery attempt. The family tried to keep the store going, but it's proving too difficult.

When the phone rings, Karim Khamarko's grandchildren still ask if it's "Jido," the Chaldean word for grandpa.

"His grandkids were his life, they enriched his life," Khamarko's daughter Candace Khamarko said. "He could talk about them all day long. He would call all the time. When the phone rings, they still say 'Jido.'"

On the night of Nov. 26, Khamarko's store,  on Hilton, was robbed. Khamarko, 64, was the only one there at the time. What exactly transpired is still being investigated by Ferndale Police, but they have called it a "botched robbery." , who died shortly afterward at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak.

The shooter left three grandchildren, five children and a wife with a hole in their lives.

"We were at home. We got a phone call from the police to go to Beaumont. They told us it was a robbery," Candace Khamarko said. "We knew it was bad. When we arrived at the hospital, he had died."

The family, which lives in Southfield, tried to make a go of the business, , but it's proving to be too difficult.

"Business is good, but there are a lot of memories," said Khamarko's widow, Aida. "Every day I open the door, it hits me, what happened to my husband hits me all over again."

Once the inventory is gone, the family will close Dollar Club Plus. They own the building, so they are trying to lease it. Aida Khamarko said she'd like to see the store stay what it is, but at this point it's just too hard for her and the family to keep it open.

"We are here seven days a week, open to close," Candace Khamarko said. "It's just too emotional. It's time to close the store."

Carol Gauthier lives just a few blocks away from the Dollar Club Plus. "He was a very sweet man," the Ferndale resident said. "He was always giving me deals. I'm going to miss this store. You can buy everything here, you can get a full course meal here."

"There has been a great amount of support from the community," Candace Khamarko said.  She rattled off a few stories about how her father gave gas money to one patron and told another to fill up a grocery cart and then told another he would extend lines of credit but wouldn't require payments on some of them.

"He helped a lot of people here. Ferndale feels like family," she said. "Leaving is hard, but it's more difficult being here."

There is still a , but Ferndale Police have no new information on the investigation.

"We have no update on this case whatsoever," Ferndale Police Detective Lt. William Wilson said Monday.

What is known is that the suspect entered the store right before closing time, sometime between 8:35 p.m. and 8:55 p.m. Dollar Club Plus didn't have video surveillance, but neighboring businesses caught the suspect casing the store, Candace Khamarko said. She said the suspect walked along Hilton and then into the alley behind the store.

"We know he was heading toward Woodward Heights (after the shooting) on foot. He left on foot," she said.

"(The shooter) took my dad's life. It's not the first and my dad is not the last. I wish I could make the bad people stop doing bad things," Candace Khamarko said.

Aida Khamarko came to Michigan in 1973 from Iraq. Karim Khamarko came over in '74. "I didn't know Karim at the time. It was an arranged marriage. We were engaged for three months and in 1976 we got married," Aida Khamarko said.

In 1977, their oldest child, Brenda, was born. "After that, it was one after the other," Aida said smiling.

The Khamarko family found its way to Ferndale in 1995, when Karim Khamarko leased a building on Woodward Heights for a video store business. In 1997, they purchased the building on Hilton and in 2006 Khamarko got out of the video business and transformed it into a dollar store.

"We worked together every day since 1995," Aida Khamarko said. "He was my best friend."

To hear Candace and Aida Khamarko talk about the father and husband is to hear the words family man and handyman and gardener over and over again. Khamarko loved his children – Candace, 23; Kevin, 28; Vivian, 30; Vincent, 32; and Brenda (Khamarko) Kalasho, 33. He loved his grandchildren – Julian, 5 months; Preston, 2; and Roman, 3, Kalasho. He also loved to garden, cut the grass, fix things and barbecue.

"He loved to barbecue, a lot," Aida Khamarko said. "He owned three grills, but no one barbecue anymore."

Aida, Candace and the rest of the Khamarkos will continue to stay busy with the store until they close it. No set date of closure is planned, just whenever the inventory is gone. Aida Khamarko said she just needs to stay busy, but it's hard when staying busy happens in the same place her husband was murdered.

"I always ask why. Why he was killed? Why?" Aida Khamarko said. "We ask all the time, but there is no answer."


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