articles on decline of pay phones [telecom]

The story _doesn't_ say the robbery victim asked the gas station attendant(s) to "call 911", it says they asked to _use their phone_ i.e. either come behind the bulletproof partition - where the attendant can be more easily robbed - or (more likely) be handed the attendant's cellphone - and disappear with it. Any law requiring someone to make themselves a potential crime victim is unenforceable.

Sorry to nitpick, but yes, the story did say the man asked the clerks to call the police and they refused that request too.

I could certainly understand the reluctance of a store clerk to allow someone in the booth or behind the counter. Indeed, such store clerks (eg late night gas station, convenience store) suffer a high rate of occupational death because of holdups.

But if someone comes in and asks the clerk to call 911 for them; I think the clerks ought to do that, and may even be required to (somewhere I read that).

I don't know the neighborhood where the incident took place, but in some areas the store clerks have very little interaction with the public other than taking money for a purchase. They offer no help in making in a purchase (don't ask them if they carry a particular soda or candy bar); and there may be a language barrier as well. I personally do not like dealing with stores that have such clerks; even in a safer neighborhood without the partitians they can be rather rude.