The shopkeeper who was universally loved and deserved better

Akram Hussein, who died suddenly after chasing a shoplifter at Centra on the Lower Drumcondra Road, Dublin. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

It was a normal Saturday morning, or as normal as you can get in the time of Covid-19. I left the house to get a treat for the family for breakfast, and on the way I stopped at our local Centra in Drumcondra to get some stuff for dinner. It was 8.30 in the morning.

I walked inside, sanitised my hands, paused, and looked left to the post office section. There was something going on there, a couple of people standing, one kneeling, one on the ground. Then the slow dawn of realisation. “Oh Jesus, it’s Akram.”