“Sandwich shop where Landry was carjacked closes doors”

Sandwich shop where Landry was carjacked closes doors

Posted: 26 Nov 2010 02:54 AM PST

By Mitch Hotts, Macomb Daily Staff Writer

Macomb Daily staff photo by David N. Posavetz The Quiznos sandwich shop on Gratiot at 10 Mile in Eastpointe recently closed for good, a little more than a year after a man was kidnapped outside of the business and later found shot to death.

Eastpointe Quiznos shut earlier this month, up for sale

The Quiznos sandwich shop in Eastpointe where a Macomb County man was kidnapped in one of the area's most notorious slayings closed recently and is up for sale.

Matthew Landry was attacked in the parking lot of the shop on Gratiot at 10 Mile Road on August 9, 2009, by two men who forced him into the trunk of his car at gunpoint. Five days later, he was found shot to death in a burned home on Detroit's east side.

Daniel Carter Jr., whose family owns the building and operated the franchise business, said the decision to close earlier this month was twofold.

"I'm retiring and looking to move to Florida," Carter said Wednesday. "And with the economy being like it is, our business was down."

Due to the media attention of the Landry slaying, the Quiznos location was frequently in the news as authorities hunted for the killers and then later during the trial of Ihab Maslamani, the key suspect in the murder.

Maslamani, 18, was convicted in October of carjacking, kidnapping and murdering the 21-year-old Landry, a Chesterfield Township musician.

His co-defendant, Robert Taylor, 17, of Detroit, is scheduled to face trial Dec. 1 in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens.

Media attention most recently was focused on Quiznos this past August when a memorial service was held outside the eatery and attended by Landry's friends and supporters, along with a number of Eastpointe police officers who worked on his case.

Brett Pioszak, whose family has operated the Plum Pit shop near the Quiznos for the past 43 years, said he was surprised to see the sandwich shop close its doors. He said the Carters had been good neighbors since they opened the restaurant in 2003. Continued...

He said the Landry case remains fresh in the minds of many of his customers.

"We do have customers coming back and saying they were thinking of what happened over there," Pioszak said.

While the kidnapping hits close to home for Pioszak and other business owners in the area, police say the 10 Mile-Gratiot area is a safe one.

"This was an isolated incident," Pioszak said. "This is a pretty safe area. We've been robbed once, about five years ago. One crime in 43 years isn't too bad of a track record."

Carter, the Quiznos owner, agreed that the carjacking "could have happened anywhere," but it did happen outside his shop.

Asked to quantify the lost sales from the negative publicity, Carter was at a loss to come up with a figure.

"I don't know if you can put a number on all that has happened over there," he said.