Friends, family join mourners in vigil held for slain store clerk

The mourning continues in St. Augustine where, a gunman robbing a convenience store this week took the life of a clerk.

Malav Desai's parents arrived and joined other friends and family in a vigil after 29-year-old Desai was gunned down while handing over money during a broad daylight armed robbery on Tuesday.

The 15-year-old charged in the killing made his first appearance on a murder charge Friday morning. Police said Sergio Morgan-Wideman robbed the Tobacco & Beverage Express on Masters Drive in St. Augustine and fired the fatal shot.

Morgan-Wideman and a 16-year-old were arrested later Tuesday in Green Cove Springs after a high-speed chase through three counties.

The gathering at the vigil Friday -- crowded around a memorial to pay their respects -- showed the community's commitment to each other and to the man appreciated by his customers.

People who knew Desai, even a little it seems, came to the Tobacco & Beverage Express bringing flowers or candles, overflowing with emotion.

"It hurts, it hurts to walk into the store after, knowing where he died, and having to clean it up. That was the hardest thing I had to do," Tracy Bier, who worked with Desai, said.

Bier had worked with Desai for the past month or so and said that working with him every day made it easy to figure out how wonderful he was.

"He just had a very tender heart and it's just sad that his future got robbed from him. He always said to me, 'Work hard Tracy, so in the future you can just relax,'" Bier said. "But he doesn't get a future, doesn't get to relax, just gets to look down on us now, and be our guardian angel. But I just miss him."

Bier and many who were too emotional to speak on camera said the pain remains because Desai is gone.

"We're family. We might all come from different backgrounds, but we're still family because we work together and care about each other," Bier said.

That caring extended to Desai's family, many of them just arriving from India.
 


About the Author:

Kent Justice co-anchors News4Jax's 5 p.m., 10 and 11 p.m. newscasts weeknights and reports on government and politics. He also hosts "This Week in Jacksonville," Channel 4's hot topics and politics public affairs show each Sunday morning at 9 a.m.