{"id":217505,"date":"2025-09-11T06:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/217505\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T06:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:33:12","slug":"suspect-in-nyc-double-murder-got-into-struggle-with-verizon-worker-weeks-before-gruesome-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/217505\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect in NYC double murder got into struggle with Verizon worker weeks before gruesome crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

The career criminal accused of killing a Queens couple<\/a> allegedly tried to rob a Verizon store weeks before the double homicide \u2013 but ran off after a struggle with the clerk who now wishes he had \u201cdropped his a\u2013.\u201d<\/p>\n

The store worker described coming face to face with suspect Jamel McGriff inside a Sixth Avenue location in Manhattan on Aug. 31 \u2013 and ultimately chased him away when the victim realized the gun McGriff allegedly brandished was fake. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, the general policy for any retail location is just give them what they want, everything\u2019s insured,\u201d the worker, who did not want to be named, told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just picked literally the one employee in the whole damn company that\u2019s just like, \u2018No, motherf\u2013ker. Unless you have a real gun pointed at me, I\u2019m not giving you jack.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Queens home where an elderly couple was stabbed and burned allegedly by McGriff. Dennis A. Clark<\/p>\n

McGriff, a sex offender with a laundry list of past busts, allegedly stabbed and torched Frank and Maureen Olton inside their Queens home Monday before going on a spending spree with the victims\u2019 credit cards. <\/p>\n

The stolen card charges \u2014 at a Macy\u2019s and the Regal Cinema in Times Square \u2014 helped lead cops to the accused killer, who they finally found and arrested <\/a>Wednesday night. <\/p>\n

Eagle-eyed officers spotted McGriff thanks to real-time updates cops were getting on his location and appearance, according to sources.<\/p>\n

The suspected perp was only out of prison for two years after he spent 17 behind bars, but allegedly continued a trail of law-breaking following his release.<\/p>\n

When McGriff walked into the Verizon store, he raised red flags right away, the worker recalled.<\/p>\n

But the clerk believed it might be only an instance of fraud until McGriff allegedly followed him to the back of the store, where a safe was located.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight as I opened the safe, he said, \u2018I\u2019ve got a gun. Give me the f\u2013king phones.\u2019 I was like \u2018No.\u2019 I put the phones back in the safe and closed the safe right in front of him, and was like, \u2018Go away,\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe kept on threatening to shoot me. I caught a glimpse of his hand and saw shiny plastic, which clued me in that he didn\u2019t have a real gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGriff, 42, was arrested in Times Square on Wednesday after he was spotted outside the Regal Cinemas by eagle-eyed cops. DOC<\/p>\n

Soon, the two started brawling as the worker tried to grab the possible weapon with his left hand, which he later saw had black paint all over it. The clerk said as he started pummeling the suspect, the alleged robber quickly whimpered off.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the first punch, he screamed, \u2018It\u2019s fake, it\u2019s fake, the gun\u2019s not real,\u2019\u201d the clerk said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t even fight back. After four or five punches, he managed to break away and ran out of the store with me chasing after him, going \u2018Get the f\u2013k back here!\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The store worker said now that McGriff is allegedly connected to the gruesome double murder in Queens, he has one major regret.<\/p>\n

NYPD removed the bodies of the elderly couple who were tortured and mutilated by McGriff before he torched the home and fled. FNTV<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I had actually dropped his a\u2013, so the cops could have carted him off, rather than getting away. That way, the couple might still be alive and have no idea,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas it scary because this guy went out and killed people afterwards? No. I generally just don\u2019t do fear. But at the same time, this guy, literally to me, at least in our fight, was a p\u2014y.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGriff was released from prison in 2023 after serving time for robbery, sex act and attempted assault, but never registered as a sex offender and is suspected of being involved in another robbery, records show. It\u2019s unclear why the parolee wasn\u2019t hit with a violation.<\/p>\n

Loved ones and neighbors of Frank and Maureen Olton remembered the elderly couple as two of the nicest people they knew. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The career criminal accused of killing a Queens couple allegedly tried to rob a Verizon store weeks before…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":217506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,8339,5248,27813,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,4413,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,4522],"class_list":{"0":"post-217505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arson","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-murders","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-queens","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-us-news","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-verizon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115184271697084192","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}