Owner of destroyed gas station vows to reopen ‘bigger and better’

The sound of a power screwdriver echoed along First Avenue in South Minneapolis Friday.

While he was working, Joe Zerka recalled when his convenience store was looted twice during the riots.

“Thursday morning at 2 a.m.,” he said. “Friday night, everything going on over there.”

“Over there,” is the Minneapolis Police Department’s 5th precinct, right across the street, and now under heavy guard.

A week later, Zerka’s store is encased in plywood.

That power screwdriver is now the only way to get in.

"Terrifying, man. My pops has had this store since 1998,” Zerka says. “This place has been my home since I was a kid.”

Inside, the store is smoky and dark.

Shelves are flipped over, glass doors are smashed and merchandise is scattered everywhere on the floor.

"I was in here a couple of times before, but it hits you the same, man,” Zerka says quietly. “The smell…the smell and it’s hot outside. There’s no power, water or gas in the whole building right now.”

Surveillance video shows how looters swarmed into the store, after cutting through plywood covering an entrance.

Zerka says it also shows how a group of protesters were trying to help.

“Everyone just running in,” he remembers. “Across the street is a peaceful protest, you know? It was peaceful. You can see on my cameras there were people trying to stop other people from getting in.”

From the air, Chopper 5 captured images of the looters.

Zerka and his family were seeing it all on TV, at home.

"I was sitting with my family on the couch and just watching it,” he says. “Thank God none of us was here. Not one of my family members, friends, no employees were here, no one was here."

Fire damaged the office and an area where tobacco was sold.

Sprinklers got the flames out- but that wasn’t the only problem.

A big concern was the gas pumps.

Vandals smashed the viewing screens and spray-painted obscenities.

The bigger worry was that somebody might try to set the underground gas tanks on fire.

The store’s four tanks hold as much as 10,000 gallons of gas.

So last Saturday, Zerka and some friends took action.

“Essentially, I had four bombs underneath my store,” he says. “We dumped 500 pounds of dry ice down there. So if anyone tried to dump a cigarette, or a lighter, there’d be no oxygen there to make a fire.”

While surveying the damage, Zerka spoke out about George Floyd and his family.

"What happened to George Floyd was a tragedy,” he said softly. “We are for the protesters. We are for the protesters 100%. But we didn’t think this was going to happen.”

Zerka says his father Halim started the business with an uncle in 1998, after his parents fled from the Lebanese Civil War in 1977.

He joined the store full-time in 2015, after his father became ill.

Even now, the bond between Zerka and his nine full and part-time employees is strong.

“The employees, they want to come back, they love this store, we love this store,” Zerka explains. “I saw them yesterday. I actually delivered all their checks by hand, because I wanted to see them, let them know I’m sorry.”

He’s a bit shocked about the destruction, so close to a police precinct.

“I always say the 5th precinct is the best security guard ever. Never had one incident in 22 years,” Zerka says. “I got a lot of law enforcement that we know and they’re friends of ours. They come to the store all the time.”

He’s meeting with an insurance agent on Monday, hoping for answers.

But no matter what, Zerka has a promise.

“We’re going to rebuild,” he declares. “We’re going to come back bigger and better. This community loves us, and we love them so much.”

A GoFundMe has been created to help Zerka out with rebuilding his stores.