MICHAEL BROWN'S LEGACY:

Some retailers, like Mohamad Yaacoub, have been slammed twice by violence. His store, Sam's Meat Market, was looted in August after unarmed, 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. On Monday night, arsonists nearly burned that market to the ground.

"To be honest with you, I'm lost now," Yaacoub told NBC News after touring the charred shell that once was Sam's. The exterior brick walls are the only salvageable chunks. The roof is gone. "I'm not sure money-wise. Money-wise, it's just too hard.

"I had to borrow $700 to buy some wood, just to put the boards together to close up where (the rioters) came in from, to close the building. It's just too much, you know," added Yaacoub, who carries insurance coverage for fire damage but isn't certain when or how much he might be paid to begin a rebuild. A friend launched a fund to help pay for the market's restoration.

At a strip mall two doors down from the remnants of Sam's, looters smashed the glass at the Clip Appeal salon then hurled a Molotov cocktail inside. Two local men grabbed plastic water bottles and dashed inside the shop to try to douse the flames, said Leeanna Moore, a 22-year employee.

While Moore cheered those heroics, she admitted she hasn't decided if she will ever return to work at the salon, which also carries insurance.

"The fear bothers me right now, just the fact that we have to go back down in the area. We never felt that way before," Moore said. "That's why I think a lot of businesses won't return. They'll have the fear of: What if something else happens? The same thing could happen.

"There may be a bunch of store closings after this because, I mean, with the community being so disrupted as it as right now, what really do we have left?" Moore said. "Are they going to rebuild? No, we don't think so."

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