AUSTIN, Texas — Looters destroyed a local, minority-owned liquor store near Downtown Austin in the early morning hours of Monday, June 1, amid the protests.
World Liquor and Tobacco sits near Interstate 35 and Sixth Street. The owner told KVUE they got looted twice, first at midnight and then at 2 a.m. on Monday morning.
The store manager, Adil Malik, said they are shocked, hurt and disappointed by what took place overnight. He said a little bit of everything was taken or destroyed, including alcohol and cigars. He mentioned the owners are Pakistani and have worked hard to operate this business for the past 10 years.
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Surveillance video from the store shows more than a dozen people breaking in and taking items. The owner said that when on for about 30 minutes.
Malik could never imagine the store like this and while he believes the protests for George Floyd and Michael Ramos are good, he believes destroying property isn’t serving the goal.
“[The protest] is a good thing,” said Malik. “It's a good step but the way things are going, I’m sure there’s a lot of good people out there protesting, but at the same time in the mix we have people taking advantage of that, and I feel as Americans we shouldn’t be doing that.”
Malik added said it’s going to take them a long time to recover from this.
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