Customers remember Edmondson Village store manager killed in robbery

walked up to the locked doors, some quiet and crying, others outraged.

“They killed him! They killed this man,” Pamela Curtis said, shaking her head. The discount store was often targeted by shoplifters and drug addicts, she said. “The junkies, they just took advantage. They had to lock up the detergent.”

Ford lived about a mile away. His customers’ fears were confirmed Wednesday when they found the Dollar General locked and his car hadn’t moved from the night before.

McKinney's Memorial Holiness Church in Sandtown-Winchester wrote on Facebook that Ford served as a church deacon.

“He loved his wife, children, natural family and church family,” church leaders wrote.

Corporate offices of the Dollar General will send grief counselors for employees and the store will remain closed until further notice, company officials said in a statement.

Ford was the 212th homicide victim for the year in a city besieged by gun violence.

Just a few weeks ago, Veronica Browder was shopping at the Dollar General and found herself short of change at the register.

“I needed 56 cents and he took it out of his pocket,” she said. “He always greeted you, ‘Hello, ma’am.’ He was respectful to everyone.”

A few doors down is another discount store, Family Dollar. George Carter shopped there Wednesday for something to place in memory of Ford.

“Just to let the neighborhood know people care, just to acknowledge him,” Carter said.

He placed nine red, plastic roses outside the locked doors.