Candlelight Vigil Held for Victim in Gastonia Gas Station Murder

GASTONIA, NC – Dozens of people gathered for a candlelight vigil Sunday night to remember the victims in a deadly gas station shooting in Gastonia. Customers say a clerk at the Zula Express Shell Station on East Ozark Boulevard was killed. Another employee was injured.  Police say it happened around 11:15 Saturday night.

“I just hate it. I, I feel so bad,” says customer Debra Herms. Like others, Herms is in disbelief after the shooting at the gas station she stops at all the time. “It’s like coming into a home here, cause we all come up here,” Herms says.

A memorial is growing outside the business on E. Ozark Ave., just off I-85, near exit 19.

Surveillance images show the suspects — 21-year-old Alonte Cousar and 27-year-old Andre Issac. Both are now in the Gaston County Jail, charged with First Degree Murder and Attempted Murder.

Investigators say just over an hour before the Zula Express shooting, the pair also targeted the Gray Franklin Express, about a half mile away on E. Franklin Blvd.

They’re accused of shooting the clerk there several times, leaving that person with life-threatening injuries.