California: Two Killed During String of Robberies at 7-Eleven Stores on 7/11

Two individuals were killed and three others wounded during robberies Monday at several California 7-Eleven convenience stores.

The same suspect was wanted in at least three of the incidents, the Associated Press (AP) reported Tuesday, adding the spree occurred over a five hour period in the communities of Ontario, Upland, Riverside, Santa Ana, Brea, and La Habra.

Video footage showed a police van parked outside one of the 7-Eleven stores while investigators processed the scene:

The first incident occurred at approximately midnight in Ontario when a suspect reportedly brandished a gun at a store clerk, demanding cash.

However, the man did not fire and the worker was not hurt. It remained unclear if anything was taken from the scene. The second incident happened nearly one hour later in Upland, the outlet continued:

The suspect approached the store clerk with a few items, “some drinks and things,” and brandished a semi-automatic handgun, Upland Sgt. Jake Kirk said. The man stole the items and about $400 to $500 in cash and fled. No shots were fired.

In a social media post Monday afternoon, the Brea Police Department shared a surveillance image of the suspect wearing a black hoodie:

by the Brea Fire Department

If you have any information, please contact Detective Alfred Rodriguez at 714-671-4438 or AlfredR@cityofbrea.net. #breapd #activeinvestigation pic.twitter.com/jDhi5gnDEr

— Brea Police Dept (@BreaPD) July 11, 2022

“If you have any information, please contact Detective Alfred Rodriguez at 714-671-4438 or AlfredR@cityofbrea.net,” the post read.

More video footage showed first responders at the crime scenes, and Sgt. Maria Lopez of the Santa Ana Police Department said the date may have played a role.

“The fact that it is 7/11 and there are 7/Eleven’s obviously being targeted today, that’s something that they could potentially be looking into,” she explained:

Following the Upland occurrence, 25 miles away in Riverside a suspect brandished a gun and reportedly robbed a 7-Eleven worker then shot a customer before fleeing.

“Police believe the clerk handed over cash from the register. The shooting victim was in grave condition,” the AP report said, stating another shooting happened just after 3:00 a.m. over 20 miles away in Santa Ana.

At the scene, officers discovered a man dead in the convenience store’s parking lot with a gunshot wound to his upper body.

In addition, a 7-Eleven clerk in Brea was shot and killed approximately 40 minutes later, and under one hour after that incident, officers in nearby La Habra responded to a robbery at a local 7-Eleven store where they found two gunshot victims.

The AP said officials did not report the victims’ conditions following the incident.