WESTMINSTER – A 33-year-old man is in critical condition Monday after being shot in the head by a jewelry store owner during a robbery attempt at the Asian Garden Mall, officials said.
A second man was arrested and police are seeking a third man who escaped in a late-model Honda Accord, said Sgt. Cameron Knauerhaze of the Westminster Police Department. The wounded suspect, whom police have identified as Harold Eugene Walker of Gardena, was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange.
The second suspect, identified as Earnie Jerome Robinson, 57, of Gardena, was taken to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital because of a pre-existing medical condition, officials said.
The shooting was reported about 1:15 p.m. in the 9200 block of Bolsa Avenue near Moran Street, police said.
Two suspects entered Tick Tock Watches jewelry store, one using a wheelchair that later turned out to be a ruse, Knauerhaze said. The pair ordered the customers onto the ground, as one wielded a gun and the other a sledgehammer, he said.
Hearing the noise from the back of the store, a shop owner armed himself with his own gun and confronted the man with the gun, warning him to drop the weapon, Knauerhaze said.
When the man did not comply, the shop owner fired once, striking him in the head, Knauerhaze said. The two men fled on foot. Officers apprehended Walker as he tried to climb a wall in the parking lot, while a witness and a security guard apprehended Robinson, police said.
“This is an isolated incident that occurred in just one of the jewelry stores,” Knauerhaze said, who added that nothing was stolen from the store.
Anyone with information should call the Westminster Police Department at 714-898-3315.
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