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Killing a customer for shoplifting seems callous and cruel, but 61-year-old Taz Zarka said he was “not a monster” for stabbing 27-year-old Mark Garrity Jr. to death on April 6, 2023. 

The young man was in Taz’s family-owned, neighborhood supermarket located at the City Bus  Stop in Raleigh, North Carolina when the store owner thought Mark was stealing a blue Gatorade and some ice cream. 

Shoplifting was a constant problem for the businessman, he had them at least twice a day, and Garrity, who struggled with addiction, had put the drink in his bag, but he had not left the store with the items and was approaching the cash register with the ice cream in hand when Taz stabbed him with his pocket knife several times.

After the violent attack, it was business as usual for Taz who immediately began mopping the young man’s blood off the floor. Mark managed to crawl outside where he bled to death on the sidewalk while bystanders took video. 

Police charged Taz Zarka with second-degree murder for the crime that was caught on the store’s camera. Was a drink with monopotassium phosphate, a bit of modified food starch, glycerol, and a dash of blue food dye number one, all that Mark Garrity, Jr.’s life was worth?

Find out what the jury thought on the next episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, “Blue Gatorade: Is it worth your life? Store owner Taz Zarka stabs Mark Garrity.” 

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