A gas station clerk who locked customers in a store with a gunman charged with involuntary manslaughter

• A Detroit gas station clerk faces involuntary manslaughter charges after a shooting at his store. 
• Authorities say an angry customer shot three others while locked in by the store clerk.
• One man was fatally shot and two injured before the clerk unlocked the door.

A Detroit gas station clerk is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter after he locked customers in during an angry confrontation with an armed man, according to multiple reports.

Judge Kenneth King said that Al-Hassan Aiyash inflamed the situation in the Mobil gas station in the early hours of May 6, when three men were shot, one fatally, the Associated Press reported.

Samuel McCray, who faces murder and attempted murder charges, was attempting to buy $3.80 worth of goods when his card was declined.

An angered, cursing McCray said he was going to leave with the items anyway, the AP reported, but Aiyash, who was behind protective glass, locked the door on him and three other people who were inside. 

In court on Tuesday, the judge said that Aiyash "continued to pour gasoline on the fire," by taunting the customer, who was insisting on leaving, the AP reported.

There was nothing to indicate that Aiyash knew McCray had a gun, the AP reported his defense attorney as saying. 

Anthony Bowden, one of those shot, said in court on Tuesday: "I watched it build to an eight before the shooting started," the AP reported.

"Right before he shot us, there was all this yelling," David Langston, who was hit in the arm, told the court, according to Fox 2 Detroit. "I turned around and said, 'Hey man, we ain't got nothing to do with it.'"

He earlier told the outlet: "We were like, let us up out of here, we don't have anything to do with this. The guy is like, 'If you don't unlock this door, I'm gonna shoot everybody in here.'"

Aiyash unlocked the door seconds before Gregory Kelly, 37, was shot and killed, the AP reported. 

In an earlier bail hearing, Aiyash's lawyer, Jamil Khuja, said he panicked, the AP reported. "He was doing his job," Khuja told the judge. "Did he panic and act inappropriately in a way? Maybe, but that's the best they can argue here."

The judge, who ordered the case to move to trial, said on Tuesday: "If not for the fact that he locked the door, none of this would have happened."

McCray remains in Wayne County jail without bond.