Two people were killed and three were wounded in shootings before dawn Monday at four 7-Eleven stores in Southern California. Authorities said they were seeking one gunman in connection with at least three of the shootings.
The shootings appear to have occurred after robberies or attempted robberies at the four convenience stores on July 11, or 7/11 — a day when the national 7-Eleven brand celebrates its 95th birthday by giving out free Slurpee drinks.
“Our hearts are with the victims and their loved ones,” 7-Eleven, Inc. said in a statement. “We are gathering information on this terrible tragedy and working with local law enforcement.”
It wasn’t immediately clear to investigators what prompted the shootings in the cities of Riverside, Santa Ana, Brea and La Habra, or why the violence occurred on July 11.
“I think the only person to answer that would be the suspect,” said Officer Ryan Railsback, a spokesperson for the Riverside Police Department, where the first shooting happened at about 1:50 a.m. “There’s no way it can be a coincidence of it being 7-Eleven, July 11.”
The Riverside shooting — where the victim was in grave condition — has not yet been officially connected to the others, Railsback said, “although they all seem very, very similar.” Authorities did not say what distinguished the Riverside shooting from the other three.
In that incident, the gunman robbed the clerk and brandished a gun, turned the weapon on a customer, opened fire and fled, Railsback said.
“It doesn’t appear to be any reason that the suspect shot the customer,” Railsback said. “It sounds like the clerk gave him whatever he asked for.”
The second shooting occurred around 3:20 a.m., about 24 miles away in Santa Ana, authorities said.
Officers responding to reported gunshots at the 7-Eleven in that city and found a man dead in the parking lot with one bullet in his upper torso, according to Sgt. Maria Lopez, a Santa Ana police spokesperson.
“At this moment, we don’t believe he was an employee. We don’t really know yet what he was doing there in a parking lot, if he was a potential customer or just walking by,” Lopez said.
Lopez said detectives believe the suspect in the Santa Ana killing is the same person who then traveled 12 miles to Brea, where a 7-Eleven employee was found dead of a gunshot wound at about 4:18 a.m.
Brea Police Capt. Phil Rodriguez said officers responded to a call and found the employee wounded. He was later pronounced dead.
“This does appear to be a robbery that turned into a homicide,” Rodriguez said.
Less than an hour later, officers in neighboring La Habra were sent to a reported robbery at a 7-Eleven. They discovered two gunshot victims around 4:55 a.m., according to Sgt. Sumner Bohee. The gunman had fled.
“We feel confident that it is the same suspect,” Rodriguez said.
