Auto Parts Store Owner Murdered, Interview With Victim's Wife

By: Staff Reports | News Channel 7
Published: November 03, 2009

**Tuesday 11:37 a.m. Update**

Chavis Laranzo Cox was arraigned by a Greenville County Magistrate late Monday night and he remains in the Greenville County Detention Center under no bond.

Greenville County Sheriff's investigators say the shooting occurred after an argument between Cox and Al-Waajid Haneef, who had had been involved in a prior business deal.

Early Tuesday morning Greenville County Sheriff's Deputies charged a suspect with murder in the shooting death of a auto shop owner.

The shooting happened at Haneef's Auto Parts and Accessories at the corner of White Horse Road and Randolph Street Monday afternoon.

Sheriff's deputies said the suspected gunman walked into the store, there was a fight with the owner, and then shots were fired. Investigators said a security guard next door heard the gunfire, ran into the business, and tackled the suspect. The coroner said the victim, Al-Waajid Haneef, suffered a gunshot wound to the head and died around 6:30 pm Monday at Greenville Hospital System.

Haneef's wife talked to News Channel 7 exclusively late Monday night and said their store was just broken into over the weekend. She said her husband was trying to make the business more secure, when the shooting happened.

"Hard working man, we own our business, we pay taxes, trying to make it just like everybody else and I mean just for him to be gone like that I still can't believe it. I'm not angry, I feel for his parents, I'm angry my husband was taken like that, it was senseless, for nothing, they didn't get nothing, he had no money on him He totally changed for me. He loved me, and did everything he could to make life better for us. Every morning you wake up you think forever is going to be forever", said Haneef's wife Angela Stewart.

Garrett Johnson was the security guard who said he took the suspect down as he tried to get away. Johnson called 911 and held the suspected shooter down until deputies arrived.
Johnson said, "I wouldn't label myself as a hero. I would just say God had a specific time for me to be at that specific place".

Chavis Cox, 20, is being held into the Greenville County Detention Center awaiting Tuesday's expected bond hearing. He is charged with murder and posession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.

Investigators told News Channel 7, he has a long criminal history which includes probation violations and burglary.