Two men were taken into custody Friday in Los Angeles as the suspects behind multiple armed 7-eleven stores robbery incidents in Southern California that resulted in two killings and three others being wounded, authorities said, People magazine reports.
“This was a reign of terror,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer described the 7-eleven stores robbery incidents at a press conference, announcing the arrests of Malik Patt, 20, and Jason Payne, 44, on Friday.
According to the report, the 7-eleven stores robbery incidenst at various California counties occurred over 5 hours on Monday, leaving two people dead — Matthew Hirsch, 40, a store clerk who was gunned down at a Brea 7-Eleven, and Matthew Rule 24, who was shot outside a Santa Ana store, per authorities.
Police also said the two men were allegedly involved in another homicide case on July 9 in Los Angeles. One of the men was also tied to “a number of crimes” following a further investigation, police said.
The arrests of the two men were made after a task force managed to track the suspects at a home in the 1900 block of West 23rd Street, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The image of one of the men captured on surveillance video, which showed his face covered partly by a mask, was widely shared as authorities conducted the search for them. 7-Eleven also offered an incentive of $100,000 for anyone providing information leading to an arrest.
Santa Ana Police Chief David Valentin also revealed during the press conference that Rule was shot after he attempted to intervene when one of the gunmen was trying to rob another person. Rule “tried to redirect the suspect. The suspect turns around and shoot[s] our victim, kills him on the spot,” he said.
Meanwhile, two people, a customer and an employee, were shot in the La Habra store, and another customer was gunned in the head at a Riverside store. Jason Harrell, 46, the victim of the Riverside shooting, is no longer in a coma and breathing on his own, his brother, David Makin, told KNBC-TV. The two victims from La Habra were also wounded but are expected to survive.
Jim Hirsch, whose son Matthew was killed in the Brea shooting, shared with the Associated Press that he had been sober and clean from his drug addiction for over a year. He added that Matthew had found stability with the job at the 7-Eleven store and lived with his girlfriend in the nearby area.
“He hadn’t had time to enjoy a normal life,” Jim said of his son, whom he talked to daily. “He goes through a struggle for goodness and it ends in a shooting.”