Two men were arrested Thursday after Pittsburgh police said they attacked a 7-Eleven employee in Bloomfield and later told an officer the worker “needs to go back to his land … his country.”
Pittsburgh police charged Cedrick Smith, 25, of McKeesport and Duron Davenport, 19, of Pittsburgh’s Garfield neighborhood with ethnic intimidation and simple assault.
Police said the two left a gash above Mohammed Al-Maghariz’s left eye after hitting him with a torrent of punches.
Al-Maghariz had repeatedly told the pair to leave the store, according to a criminal complaint.
Police said the men acted “with malicious intention toward the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin of another individual … on his or her property,” according to the complaint. They did not elaborate.
Police did not provide any biographical information — such as age, race, ethnicity or religious affiliation — about Al-Maghariz in the complaint.
The complaint did not contain information about whether either suspect said anything about Al-Maghariz’s ethnicity or religion to him.
Nobody answered the phone Friday at the 7-Eleven location at 4779 Liberty Ave.
The store and an adjoining Sunoco gas station sit across South Mathilda Street from West Penn Hospital.
Neither 7-Eleven nor Sunoco’s corporate headquarters responded Friday to emails seeking comment.
Video footage from inside the convenience store showed Davenport and Smith enter and approach the counter around 11:30 a.m., according to the criminal complaint.
“Get me a Black & Mild, (expletive),” Davenport told Al-Maghariz, referring to a tobacco product, the complaint said.
Police said Al-Maghariz declined Davenport’s request, who was too young under Pennsylvania’s age limit of 21 to buy tobacco products.
Davenport and Al-Maghariz then began arguing.
Al-Maghariz “was observed continually pointing toward the door as the two continued to argue,” the complaint said.
Police said the video showed AI-Maghariz “swiping his hand extremely close to Davenport’s face.” No contact was made, according to the complaint.
Al-Maghariz walked around the counter and approached the two men “while yelling and pointing toward the door,” the complaint said.
Both Smith and Davenport then began punching Al-Maghariz multiple times, the complaint said. Al-Maghariz “held his hands up in an attempt to block the punches.”
The pair then ran from the store, the complaint said.
Officers responded to a “theft report” from the store and found Al-Maghariz with “a gash” above his left eye, with dried blood extending down the left side of his face, the complaint said. His left eye was red.
A police officer spotted — and stopped — the two suspects as they were walking away from the convenience store near the intersection of Liberty Avenue and South Winebiddle Street, the complaint said.
Smith and Davenport told police “that they had been assaulted” by the store employee, the complaint said.
Davenport confirmed he asked for a Black & Mild, a cigarillo packed with flavored pipe tobacco, and the clerk there denied his request and asked the pair to leave, the complaint said. They “exchanged words” and then the employee “smacked” him, Davenport told police.
Al-Maghariz “got what he deserved,” Davenport told police, the complaint said.
“He needs to go back to his land …his country,” Smith said, according to the complaint.
“Keep all that disrespect over there,” Smith added, the complaint said. “With the guy there … at the store, it has to do with race.”
Al-Maghariz told police he planned to go to West Penn Hospital for his injuries, the complaint said. He also confirmed Davenport and Smith, who were in the back seat of a police cruiser, were the attackers.
Attorneys for Davenport and Smith were not listed Friday in court records.
Court records show Smith negotiated a guilty plea in 2024 for two counts of harassment with physical contact, and one count of disorderly conduct for engaging in fighting. A judge sentenced him to 90 days’ probation.
Davenport and Smith have preliminary hearings set for Sept. 23.