Glen Cove man arrested in alleged gas station murder

Lawrence Grammer, 71, of Glen Cove, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and first-degree criminal use of a firearm related to a homicide that occurred at a gas station on Glen Cove Road in Glen Head on Saturday, August 4 at 11:22 a.m.

According to detectives, the incident began with a verbal argument between Grammer and another gas station employee, Bashir Ward, 35, of Valley Stream.

“That dispute escalated,” Nassau County Police Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick said, “where one of the co-workers, Lawrence Grammer, went to his auto, recovered a .45 caliber handgun, came back and shot his co-worker.”

Ward was pronounced dead at the scene by a Nassau County Police medic .

Fitzpatrick said that on the Friday before the incident, Grammer and Ward got into a physical fight that had been broken up.

Grammer pleaded not guilty at his arraignment at First District Court in Hempstead and is being held without bail.

According to state records available online, in 1997, Grammer was convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl, for which he was sentenced to five-year’s probation.

Kevin Zheng, who manages Kiraku, the Japanese restaurant across the street from the gas station, said that he didn’t know exactly what happened, but that Lawrence had sometimes serviced his car, and that he “seemed like a nice guy, always smiling, and working most of the time.”

Zach Gottehrer-Cohen and Alyssa Seidman contributed to this story.