He came to Baltimore for a better life. Police say he was shot and killed by a wanted man.

Khaled Saleh Mohamed Alshariki wasn’t a Baltimore native or even born in the United States, but that never affected his ability to talk to just about anybody who came to the corner store where he worked. Perhaps it was his inviting smile or calm nature that eased customers hurrying in for a cold cut after a long day of work.

“The seven years I knew him, he didn’t bother anybody,” said Basheer Alqadri, who owns several convenience stores in East Baltimore. “He always smiled at everyone.”

Maybe that’s why Alqadri continually hired Alshariki to work at his businesses. Alshariki was from Yemen but left seven years ago to provide a better life for his wife and three children.

He will no longer be able to provide for his family. Just before 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 13, a man burst into the Broadway Mart and shot him during an armed robbery. Alshariki, 36, later died at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

He’d worked at the store on North Broadway and East Eager Street for all of two months.

The man accused of fatally shooting him, Brian Burrows, 52, of Oliver, was already wanted on allegations that he had violated his probation for a similar crime. For more than five months, law enforcement could not find him.

‘Just been dealing with drugs for all my life’

In 2017, Burrows stood in a yellow jumpsuit next to two other men inside a courtroom in the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse.

Baltimore Police were driving in an unmarked car on Spaulding Avenue in Central Park Heights eight months earlier when they saw Burrows standing behind a vehicle.

Police noticed that Burrows was holding and peering into a purple Crown Royal bag. He quickly dropped it after seeing the cops.

Officer Ian Smith got out of the car, walked over and peeked inside the bag. He discovered 27 vials of heroin and 44 vials of cocaine.

Burrows later pleaded guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court to possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine for a 15-year suspended sentence and two years’ probation. He was also ordered to take part in drug treatment court.

Circuit Judge Thomas J.S. Waxter Jr. addressed the three men before handing down their sentences.

“I’ve looked at the three of you. You’re all different,” Waxter said. “But the records — the criminal justice records of each of you — are just terrible.”

Waxter noted that the men each possessed at least 10 prior convictions, which meant they had spent a “substantial period of time in your life involved with drugs, and a substantial period of time in your life being locked up.”

“This court is for people to turn their lives around,” Waxter said. “And if ever there were three gentlemen who needed to turn their lives around before it’s too, too late, it’s each one of you.”

Burrows, though, never completed an intake with a probation agent or appeared in court, resulting in a warrant for his arrest.

Then on July 23, 2018, Burrows robbed Sunshine Carry Out & Deli on Park Heights Avenue in Northwest Baltimore at gunpoint. He made off with about $200.

Burrows pleaded guilty in 2019 to armed robbery and use of a handgun during the commission of a crime of violence. He then admitted to violating his probation.

At sentencing, Natalie Finegar, Burrows’ attorney, told the judge that her client had used drugs since he was 15 and held up the store to support his addiction.

Burrows, she said, now understood the terror he caused and was not beyond rehabilitation.

He also briefly addressed the court.

“Just been dealing with drugs for all my life,” Burrows said. “Never really gave myself a chance.”

Circuit Judge Ellen M. Heller sentenced Burrows to eight years in prison.

“It was a serious crime,” Heller said. “You not only took the money, you did it with a weapon — a gun — in a city that is already besieged by people with weapons and guns.”

At the same time, Heller said, Burrows would one day get another chance.

‘The individual was actively evading detection’

Burrows was released from prison on Jan. 17, 2025, to DreamLife Treatment Center.

He cycled in and out of drug treatment and, at one point, was hospitalized after an overdose.

Burrows was then admitted to another drug treatment facility, Gaudenzia, but left on Aug. 3, 2025, against medical advice. He was in the wind.

His probation agent, Jessica Thomas, reported that Burrows never contacted her after getting out of prison. She described him as “an absconder of supervision.”

On Sept. 10, 2025, Circuit Judge Charles H. Dorsey III issued a no-bail arrest warrant. But Burrows and Alshariki would soon cross paths.

On Feb. 6, Burrows robbed Mini Market Store on North Broadway in East Baltimore at gunpoint, police say.

Then on Feb. 13, Burrows shot and killed Alshariki during a robbery at the Broadway Mart, according to police. Surveillance cameras captured the deadly shooting.

Two days after the killing, police say, Burrows robbed yet another corner store at gunpoint in East Baltimore: Family Grocery and Tobacco on North Bond Street.

Burrows allegedly made off with about $600.

Police reported that they identified Burrows after entering a photo taken from surveillance video into a facial recognition database.

Law enforcement arrested him on Feb. 19, and he’s being held in the Baltimore Central Booking & Intake Center without bond.

The Maryland Office of the Public Defender represented Burrows at his bail review hearing on Monday and declined to comment. He’s charged with first-degree murder and related offenses.

In a statement, the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office said the agency entered the arrest warrant for allegations that Burrows violated his probation into its system, which shared the information with the Baltimore Police Department and other local and national law enforcement partners.

Sheriff’s deputies, the statement continued, were unable to serve the warrant because they did not have an address for Burrows, who had left a drug treatment facility.

Deputies checked other addresses and followed all leads but could not locate the individual, who was actively avoiding detection, the statement said.

‘I’m sorry about what happened’

Dozens of people recently gathered to pay their respects to Alshariki at his janazah, or funeral service. The Yemeni American Media Foundation broadcast the final prayer, at Masjid Al-Rahmah, or Mosque of Mercy, in Windsor Mill.

“It’s always a tragedy when a family has to suffer a loss due to senseless violence,” said Yehia Hassanein, executive director of the Islamic Society of Baltimore, which manages funeral services at Masjid Al-Rahmah.

Back at the Broadway Mart, business has returned to normal. The aisles are stocked with candy and other snacks. The freezers are filled with ice cream. The kitchen is open for cold-cut orders. Meanwhile, the counter is loaded up with vapes and cigarettes.

But there is a new addition since the deadly shooting: an electric buzzer that the cashier must activate to let customers in and out of the store.

Right before a cashier in the same spot where Alshariki once worked buzzed a customer out of the store, the man offered his condolences.

“Ay man, I’m sorry about what happened,” he said. “That’s fucked up!”