The profession prison accused of killing a Queens couple allegedly tried to rob a Verizon retailer weeks earlier than the double murder – however ran off after a battle with the clerk who now needs he had “dropped his a–.”
The shop employee described coming head to head with suspect Jamel McGriff inside a Sixth Avenue location in Manhattan on Aug. 31 – and in the end chased him away when the sufferer realized the gun McGriff allegedly brandished was pretend.
“The factor is, the final coverage for any retail location is simply give them what they need, all the pieces’s insured,” the employee, who didn’t need to be named, advised The Submit.
“He simply picked actually the one worker in the entire rattling firm that’s similar to, ‘No, motherf–ker. Until you may have an actual gun pointed at me, I’m not providing you with jack.’”
McGriff, a intercourse offender with a laundry record of previous busts, allegedly stabbed and torched Frank and Maureen Olton inside their Queens house Monday earlier than occurring a spending spree with the victims’ bank cards.
The stolen card prices — at a Macy’s and the Regal Cinema in Occasions Sq. — helped lead cops to the accused killer, who they lastly discovered and arrested Wednesday night time.
Eagle-eyed officers noticed McGriff because of real-time updates cops had been getting on his location and look, in keeping with sources.
The suspected perp was solely out of jail for 2 years after he spent 17 behind bars, however allegedly continued a path of law-breaking following his launch.
When McGriff walked into the Verizon retailer, he raised purple flags instantly, the employee recalled.
However the clerk believed it is perhaps solely an occasion of fraud till McGriff allegedly adopted him to the again of the shop, the place a protected was positioned.
“Proper as I opened the protected, he mentioned, ‘I’ve bought a gun. Give me the f–king telephones.’ I used to be like ‘No.’ I put the telephones again within the protected and closed the protected proper in entrance of him, and was like, ‘Go away,’” he recalled.
“He saved on threatening to shoot me. I caught a glimpse of his hand and noticed shiny plastic, which clued me in that he didn’t have an actual gun.”
Quickly, the 2 began brawling because the employee tried to seize the potential weapon together with his left hand, which he later noticed had black paint throughout it. The clerk mentioned as he began pummeling the suspect, the alleged robber shortly whimpered off.
“After the primary punch, he screamed, ‘It’s pretend, it’s pretend, the gun’s not actual,’” the clerk mentioned. “He didn’t even combat again. After 4 or 5 punches, he managed to interrupt away and ran out of the shop with me chasing after him, going ‘Get the f–okay again right here!’”
The shop employee mentioned now that McGriff is allegedly linked to the ugly double homicide in Queens, he has one main remorse.
“I want I had really dropped his a–, so the cops may have carted him off, moderately than getting away. That method, the couple may nonetheless be alive and do not know,” he mentioned.
“Was it scary as a result of this man went out and killed folks afterwards? No. I typically simply don’t do worry. However on the similar time, this man, actually to me, a minimum of in our combat, was a p—y.”
McGriff was launched from jail in 2023 after serving time for theft, intercourse act and tried assault, however by no means registered as a intercourse offender and is suspected of being concerned in one other theft, data present. It’s unclear why the parolee wasn’t hit with a violation.
Family members and neighbors of Frank and Maureen Olton remembered the aged couple as two of the nicest folks they knew.
