Taz store owner who's charged with murder gets $1M bond, has to surrender passport
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- More than a month after he was indicted by a grand jury, a Raleigh store owner charged with killing a customer was granted bond at a hearing Friday.
The judge set Taiseer "Taz" Zarka's bond at $1 million and he must surrender his passport.
Zarka, 60, is charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of 27-year-old Mark Garrity Jr. on April 6 at Taz's Supermarket One on S. Wilmington Street. Officers said Garrity died after he was taken to the hospital.
Since his arrest on April 19, Zark has been in the Wake County Jail. He was indicted on May 15.
A day after the incident, an employee told ABC11 that Zarka had accused Garrity of shoplifting and asked him to open his bag. When he refused, they allegedly got into a fight and during the altercation Garrity was stabbed multiple times.
While planning his funeral, the family talked with ABC11 about Garrity and what it was like receiving a call from the police about his death.
"That is the one phone call I wish no one ever has to take," said Mark Garrity Sr. On the other line was a member of the Holly Springs Police Department to alert Garrity and his wife that their son had been stabbed to death Thursday afternoon.
Garrity Jr. was the couple's oldest son.
"I told him that I loved him. And that was it," said Amy Garrity, recalling her last conversation with her son just two days before his death.
Watch the interview here: 'It's devastating.' Parents trying to cope after son stabbed to death
