The shootings appear to have followed predawn robberies or attempted robberies at the four convenience stores on July 11, or 7/11 — a day when national brand 7-Eleven celebrated its 95th birthday by giving away free Slurpee drinks. “Our hearts go out to the victims and their loved ones,” 7-Eleven, Inc. said in a statement. “We are gathering information about this terrible tragedy and are cooperating with local law enforcement.” It was not immediately clear to investigators what led to 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 who will answer this is the suspect,” said Officer Ryan Railsback, a spokesman for the Riverside Police Department, where the first shooting happened about 1:50 a.m. Riverside is located approximately 85 kilometers east of Los Angeles. “There is no way that 7-Eleven, July 11, is a coincidence,” he said. The shooting in Riverside — where the victim was in critical condition — has not yet been officially linked to the others, Railsback said, though he noted that “they all look very, very similar.” In the Riverside case, he said the gunman robbed the clerk and brandished a gun, then pointed the gun at a customer, opened fire and fled. “There doesn’t appear to be any reason the suspect shot the customer,” Railsback said. “Sounds like the clerk gave him what he asked for.”
Man dead in parking lot in second shooting
The second shooting occurred around 3:20 a.m., about 40 miles away in Santa Ana, authorities said. Officers who responded to a reported shooting at that city’s 7-Eleven found a man dead in the parking lot with a bullet wound to his upper torso, according to Sgt. Santa Ana Police spokeswoman Maria Lopez. The violence appears to include an attempted robbery. “At this time, we don’t believe it was an employee,” Lopez said of the victim there. “We still don’t really know what he was doing there in a parking lot, whether he was a potential customer or just passing through.” Lopez said detectives believe the suspect in the Santa Ana killing is the same person who then traveled about 12 miles to Brea, where a 7-Eleven employee was found shot to death at 4:18 a.m.
