Basim Basil Sulaka, 51, was the owner of Moon Lite Party Store on Harper Avenue in Clinton Township and a well-known member of the local Chaldean community. A husband and father of two daughters who had recently recovered from cancer, he was described as kind and generous. On the evening of March 28, 2014, three masked men entered his store in an armed robbery recorded on the store’s surveillance cameras. As Sulaka came out of an office inside the business he was shot in the back with a 9 mm handgun. The robbers ransacked the store, took cash from the register, and fled; reports say they each left with about $200.The investigation led to four arrests. Clinton Rayshawn Grayson, Darius Diaz Gaskin, Kenneth Hill, and Jomar Robinson were charged with felony murder, armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and felony firearm. Gaskin was identified as the shooter and said the gun discharged accidentally; the others have been described as armed, collecting the money, and serving as the getaway driver. Convictions and sentences were returned in 2015, leaving Sulaka’s family to mourn a violent, senseless loss.

Did anyone who knew Basim or worked at the Moon Lite Party Store notice anything unusual in the days before the robbery?