CLEVELAND — Cleveland Collinwood neighborhood store owner Daniel Wortor is determined to reopen his Kamoe Corner Store in the coming months, even though he was nearly killed during a Nov. 16 shooting.
Cleveland police report surveillance video from the store shows 18-year-old Chelsi Allen-Simmons starting an argument in the store, pulling a gun, and firing several shots, as Wortor pulled his gun.
Allen-Simmons has since been arrested and charged with Attempted Murder, Aggravated Robbery, Felonious Assault, and Criminal Damaging, and is set to be arraigned on the charges in Cuyahoga County Court on Feb. 18.
Wortor showed News 5 the plastic lens of his glasses he believes saved his life when it redirected a bullet that hit him in the face and grazed him near his right eye.
“I am so grateful to be alive because when that little girl came and pulled that gun she pointed it, and I moved away from the gun, and she just start shooting," Wortor said. "There was a freezer over there, she shot all the doors up, she shot through everything.”
“I am very, very grateful to be alive today, I would have been dead. When the bullet hit here, it grazed down here and came out. It didn’t go deep into my head.”
But the November shooting wasn't the only issue, Wartor reports his store and family have been the victims of violence and intimidation for two years. Wortor showed News 5 surveillance video of his vehicles being lit on fire twice in 2020. Wortor said the store has also been vandalized multiple times. Still, Wortor said the attacks will not stop him from serving the Collinwood community.
“I don’t think so, no they can’t drive me off, if justice is there for me, I cannot let them drive me off, Wortor said. "All I need is justice.”
“It hurts so bad, most nights I can’t sleep because that hurts. People keep calling, when are we going to open.”
Cleveland Councilman Michael Polensek is so upset by the violence leveled against Wortor, he sent a letter to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley, asking him to prosecute the case thoroughly.
“I want the prosecutor's office to aggressively pursue whatever action they need to take against the people been involved," Polensek said. “Here’s a man who came to this country from Liberia to fulfill the American dream.”
"He’s had arson, he’s had his windows taken out, they’ve tried to steal his identity. He lives behind his store, just trying to fulfill the American dream, and his what they’re trying to do to him.”
