Aurora – A female clerk working alone at a 7-Eleven was shot early Sunday by a gunman who walked away and left her to die in the store, police said.
The homicide occurred just after 3 a.m. at the convenience store on the southwest corner of East Sixth Avenue and Havana Street.
The cash register was not disturbed, and it does not appear that any money was stolen, said Aurora police Detective Robert Friel.
That does not mean that police have ruled out robbery as a motive since anything of value besides cash might have been taken, he said.
The 62-year-old clerk was described as a hardworking woman who had a son who may be deployed in Iraq. Her identity is being withheld pending notification of family.
“The store manager described her as one of the most honest people he met,” said 7-Eleven spokeswoman Margaret Chabris. “If she was a few pennies short in the register, she would call him to tell him. If she found a quarter on the floor, she would ask who it belonged to.”
The woman worked for 7-Eleven for nine years and had worked at the store at Sixth and Havana for six months.
She worked in other stores in Aurora, including 7-Elevens near East 17th Avenue and Peoria Street and near East Colfax Avenue and Havana, Chabris said.
The clerk “always preferred and requested third shift,” which required her to work 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., Chabris said.
“This kind of crime, particularly what happened this morning, is very random,” Chabris said. “Would-be robbers and murderers will take advantage of an opportunity on any shift.”
Police released images taken by a surveillance camera that appear to show a man holding a shotgun over the clerk’s counter.
Investigators have not ruled out motives other than robbery for the shooting, including the possibility that the clerk might have known her assailant.
Detectives believe the woman tried to get away from the gunman, but he shot her in the upper part of her body and then ran off, Friel said.
A customer arrived about five minutes later and found the wounded clerk. That customer called police.
Paramedics took the victim to a hospital, where she later died. Friel would not say whether the victim was able to give them any information about what happened before she died.
The store’s manager said there has not been a robbery at that location since he took over the store three years ago, Chabris said.
The company has clerks working by themselves no matter the shift because safety research that 7-Eleven has conducted shows that a gunman and an accomplice can take on up to 11 people, Chabris said.
“Having two or three employees on a shift is not necessarily a deterrent,” she said.
Police are asking for help from anyone who was in the store or in the area around the time of the shooting who might have heard or seen something.
Detectives say a late 1980s or early 1990s Honda Accord that was captured by a camera as it went past the store might be associated with the shooting.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Hershel Stowell at 303-739-6079.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
