Funeral Set For Slain Check Cashing Store Clerk
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) – A funeral service will be held this weekend for a Broward check cashing store clerk who was shot and killed during a robbery this week.
A memorial service for Clairemathe Geffrard, 25, will be held Saturday at the E B Tabernacle, located at 3741 W Broward Boulevard.
From their modest Oakland Park home, Geffard's family told CBS4 she had been having a tough time lately. A few weeks ago someone slashed her tires and she had to deal with a lot of harassment from people coming into the store trying to cash bad checks.
"She had no clue who did it and that's when she started fearing for her life. She said someone is messing with me at work," her cousin Junie Jean-Jacques said.
Geffrard leaves behind a grieving mother, husband and a son, Jahmir, who is only days away from celebrating his first birthday.
According to Broward Sheriff's investigators took place at 9:30 a.m. just as Geffrard was opening the store. During the opening process she made a schedule call to another Check Cashing Store employee to report that she had safely entered the business.
The other employee, Yolanda Metelus, told police however as Geffrard walked from her car to the store she suddenly heard an unknown male voice say "open the (expletive) door" two times before the line disconnected. Metelus immediately called 911.
Click here for Photo Gallery: Shooting & Standoff At Check Cashing Store
At 10:00 a.m., another Check Cashing Store employee, Djefnie Perieles, received a phone call from Geffrard who told her, "Tell the police to leave, he's got a gun to my head," then the line disconnected.
Pericles said when she received the phone call she knew something was desperately wrong.
"(Geffrard) sound really, really, really scared when she called me to tell me that," Pericles said.
A short time later, sheriff's deputies who had set up a perimeter around the Check Cashing Store, located at 2927 W. Sunrise Blvd., witnessed Stanley Beasley, 33, leave the store and fire his gun at them, states the affidavit. Deputies returned fire and Beasley was wounded in the parking lot. No deputies were hurt in the gunfire.
"We believe the victim was shot before -- while -- the deputies were on scene and before (Stanley) Beasley left the business," said BSO Det. Luis Rivera.
Deputies reported finding a 9mm gun near Beasley, along with a backpack containing more than $3,300 cash in bank pouches. Beasley also told deputies, "I was by myself," and "I did it myself," according to the affidavit.
A third person, bystander Jorge Aguilar, 36, was also wounded. He was shot once in the chest while outside a tire store across the street from the crime scene. Aguilar was also taken to Broward General Medical Center in critical condition. It isn't clear who shot him.
"He is doing better but we are still trying to figure out how he received his injuries exactly," said BSO Det. Luis Rivera.
Once the area outside the Check Cashing Store was secure, SWAT team members entered the business, expecting to find more suspects. They found only Geffrard inside. She was lying face down near the open store safe with a gunshot wound to the head.
Geffrard's distraught grandmother, Jullien Geffrard, speaks of the respectful child she raised after her biological mother died in Haiti.
Geffrard came to the United States at the age of 14.
She was kind and considerate to everyone, her family said.
She started working at the check Cashing store chain seven years ago but wanted to be a nurse. Sadly, she had registered for classes to begin to complete her degree, this fall.
"Since I heard the news, I can't sleep," said her cousin Junie Jean-Jacques.
Jean-Jacques and her sister Stephanie Jean-Jacques said the three grew up together and were more like sisters.
Stephanie Jean-Jacques said she tries not to imagine her cousin's final moments with the gunman.
"All I can think about is how my cousin was begging for her life, but you still killed her," she said. "He didn't care. You're not a human being. Why would you kill somebody for something that doesn't belong to you?," sobbed Stephanie Jean-Jacques.
Geffrard's grandmother is hoping she can play some type of role in Geffrard's baby's life.
Beasley was charged with five offenses: murder, armed kidnapping, armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and attempted murder on a law enforcement officer. Investigators also want to know if he is part of a notorious gang of bank robbers.
Beasley was taken to Broward General Medical Center in critical condition. The affidavit states doctors at the hospital aren't sure whether he'll survive his injuries.
