A donation jar regularly raising more than $100 a day for the family of the 12-year-old boy shot dead in Skyway April 29 was stolen Saturday from the 7-Eleven store counter where it sat.

But the 51-year-old Seattle man arrested in connection with the theft returned it while a sheriff’s deputy was still filling out paperwork.

Alajawan S. Brown died in the store’s parking lot on Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. after he was hit by a bullet fired during a confrontation at an apartment complex just a half-block from the store.

The store had set up the donation jar for the family and money was turned over to the family each day, said Sgt. John Urquhart, a spokesman for the King County Sheriff’s Office.

The theft was caught on the store’s surveillance video.

The map placed the jar on the ground while the store clerk was distracted. He left the store and came back a minute later. He then wrapped his coat around the jar and walked out.

As the deputy wrote out his report, four people walked up to him to express outrage and disgust over the theft, Urquhart said.

One man told the deputy that the suspect is known to everyone and said something like “I hope you get to him before we do’,” according to Urquhart.

The deputy was called back into the store after the suspect returned. The Seattle man was with a community organizer who had worked on last Wednesday’s prayer vigil for Alajawan and the donations to the family.

The suspect offered to return $30, indicating that was what he took from the jar. But the clerk said the store had typically been collecting about $100 a day.

According to the Urquhart, the man was flippant and dismissive

with the deputy, saying “I brought it back, it’s all good.”

The suspect was arrested for investigation of theft. He also has two theft warrants.

He denied having any more money from the donation jar, and at one point said he spent the rest, according to Urquhart.

When he searched the suspect, the deputy found about $43 in bills and change. The suspect couldn’t explain the money, so it was returned to the donation jar.

He was booked into the King County Jail.