HOUSTON – The family of a gas station clerk gunned down by three armed robbers while working at a southeast Houston business on Wednesday morning is calling on the community for help finding the alleged killers.
Steven ‘Fluffy’ Mendoza, 42, was murdered while working the overnight shift at the Chevron on the corner of Monroe Road and Gulf Freeway in the Hobby area.
The Houston Police Department says three people are responsible for the shooting that started as an attempted robbery around 12:50 a.m.
Aside from that, the only other additional information that Houston Police has released is that the suspects are believed to be in their teens or early 20s.
Now, new security camera video obtained by KPRC 2 gives the public an up-close look at the suspects and the getaway car they used.
“That’s our only hope at this point, that somebody will come out and say who did this,” said Jessica Millan, the sister of Steven Mendoza.
It’s that very video that’s getting their family one step closer to answers.
In the video, you can see the three suspects run from the convenience store and get into a silver-colored Hyundai sedan before taking off.
These are the moments the suspects ran away from the scene, leaving Steven Mendoza dead inside the convenience store after allegedly shooting him.
“He was working. He was earning earning his wage for his family. And they were not,” Millan said.
Steven’s sister also shared that investigators believe that the 42-year-old was trying to protect himself.
“To our understanding, he had the gun in his hand,” Millan said. “We don’t know at this time if he was able to shoot it, but we know that he was trying to defend himself. So, that means that he saw it coming.”
He saw it coming. He saw some sort of violence, some type of altercation that warranted to him pulling his own gun.
It’s the last thing he ever did.
“That’s a very sad feeling that his last moment was that he needed to survive,” his sister said. “We are hopeful that he didn’t suffer.”
Now, his family is suffering.
Steven, a man nicknamed Fluffy for his size, his smile and his heart, leaving behind a wife and three kids, the youngest just six years old.
“She was only able to tell her youngest today, about what happened,” Millan said.
Steven’s sister now speaking for the entire family when she wishes she could say one final thing to her brother.
“I love him very much. And that I’m sorry that this is what happened to him,” she said.
The security camera video provided to KPRC 2 is not the only footage that exists.
The owner of the gas station that Steven worked at also has security cameras. However, the owner tells KPRC2′s Gage Goulding that the Houston Police Department took his entire system as part of their investigation.
Detectives with HPD aren’t ready to share any video of the suspects and remain quiet about any new details.
To learn more about how the Mendoza family is coping with the loss of Steven, visit their GoFundMe.