Garland police arrest 18-year-old in slaying of Ethiopian clerk

January 23, 2014

Garland police said tips led them to execute a search warrant in the 2900 block of Creek Valley Drive, where Colten Jon Moore lived. Moore’s house is less than a half-mile from the store in the 2500 block of Firewheel Parkway, near Pleasant Valley Road, said spokesman Joe Harn.

Yosef Tulu, 31, was found fatally shot at the store at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday. The store’s delivery clerk found Tulu dead behind the counter. Security footage from the store shows a masked man robbing Tulu at gunpoint with a small-caliber rifle and then shooting him, Harn said.

Police released surveillance video of the robbery Tuesday.

Moore’s bail has been set at $1 million.

Jennifer Lewis, a Garland resident, said Moore graduated with her son from Naaman Forest High School last year. He lives in a nice, middle-class neighborhood, Lewis said.

“It’s sickening to know that our kid knows who he is and just threw his life away for what, $50?” Lewis said. “He just wasted his whole life for nothing.”

Garland police arrested Moore in December for public intoxication, Harn said.

Lewis said she often chatted at the store with Tulu, whom she said everyone loved. He was always joking around, she said. Tulu was engaged to a woman in his native Ethiopia.

Lewis is co-organizing a vigil for Tulu on Thursday. It will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the 7-Eleven.