A Sunoco clerk in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood was left with a gash above his eye after two men allegedly attacked him for refusing to sell an underage customer a Black & Mild cigar, and one of the suspects now faces an ethnic intimidation charge after allegedly telling an officer the clerk needed to go back to his country. The clerk, identified in court records as Mohammed Al-Maghariz, works at the combined 7-Eleven and Sunoco station at 4779 Liberty Avenue at South Mathilda Street, directly across from West Penn Hospital.
According to WPXI, police were called to the station around 11:30 a.m. for a reported theft. Officers met with the clerk, who told them he had been attacked following an argument with two customers, 19-year-old Duron Davenport and 25-year-old Cedrick Smith, both of Pittsburgh. Surveillance video and court filings reviewed by TribLIVE show Davenport specifically demanded to buy a Black & Mild tobacco product, which the clerk refused to sell because Davenport, at 19, is not old enough to legally purchase tobacco in Pennsylvania.
Confrontation Escalates After Refused Sale
The clerk told police he refused the sale and told Davenport and Smith to leave the store. Per WPXI, surveillance video reportedly showed the clerk swinging at Davenport without making contact before Smith and Davenport punched him. Davenport and Smith later claimed to police that the Sunoco worker had assaulted them first, while Davenport reportedly said the clerk got what he deserved.
Court records cited by TribLIVE state that one of the suspects told a responding Pittsburgh police officer that the clerk needs to go back to his land, his country. Smith reportedly told police the incident had to do with race. Davenport and Smith are now charged with simple assault and ethnic intimidation, according to online court records referenced by WPXI, and both have preliminary hearings scheduled for September 23.
How Pennsylvania's Ethnic Intimidation Law Works
Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 2710, ethnic intimidation functions as an add-on crime in Pennsylvania rather than a standalone charge, according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. It requires an underlying offense, such as simple assault, committed with malicious intent tied to race, religion or national origin, and it elevates the grading of that underlying charge by one degree. That is why Davenport and Smith face both the assault charge and the bias enhancement together rather than the intimidation charge on its own.
The tobacco refusal itself was legally required. Under Pennsylvania Act 112, signed in November 2019, the legal age to purchase any tobacco or nicotine product statewide was raised from 18 to 21, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, aligning the state with federal Food and Drug Administration standards adopted the same month. Beyond the criminal case, Pennsylvania law also allows victims of bias-motivated attacks to pursue civil lawsuits seeking compensatory and punitive damages, according to the law firm Laffey Bucci D'Andrea Reich & Ryan.
Echoes of a 2019 Gas Station Clash
This is not the first time a Pittsburgh gas station confrontation has drawn scrutiny over race and safety. In September 2019, a violent dispute at an Exxon station on Brighton Road on the North Side led to simple assault charges and days of community protests, as reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Bloomfield Sunoco itself has drawn police attention before, including a robbery investigation in January 2021 reported by CBS Pittsburgh.
The Bloomfield case also lands amid a documented rise in reported hate crimes across Pennsylvania. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data compiled in 2021 showed the state logged 81 hate crime incidents in 2020, up from 45 the year before and marking a 14-year high, with bias tied to race, ethnicity or national origin accounting for the vast majority of cases, according to WHYY. Nationally, FBI data from the same period found intimidation made up 53.1% and simple assault 27.9% of all bias-motivated personal violence offenses.
Davenport and Smith are due back in a Pittsburgh courtroom next month for their preliminary hearings, where the simple assault and ethnic intimidation charges will be formally weighed.
