A convenience store employee is fighting for his life after being shot twice early Thursday when he tried to stop two suspected shoplifters from walking out of a Dallas 7-Eleven without paying. The confrontation, which happened just after 6 a.m. at the store near the 8200 block of East R.L. Thornton Service Road and Jim Miller Road, ended with one of the suspects opening fire before fleeing the scene.
According to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, the employee confronted two people suspected of trying to leave the store without paying for merchandise. The argument escalated, the two suspects assaulted the worker, and one of them shot him twice before running off. Dallas police arrived to find the man wounded and rushed him to a hospital, where he remains in critical condition.
Investigators are now reviewing surveillance footage from the store, hoping the cameras captured enough detail to identify the shooter and the second suspect. As of the latest update, Dallas police had not released a suspect description or announced any arrests, and no other information about the suspects has been made public.
Neighbor Says He Saw Trouble Brewing the Day Before
A witness named Abel Sanabria told the outlet he had watched a strikingly similar confrontation unfold at the same store just one day before the shooting. In that earlier incident, Sanabria said, a person accused of stealing beer pulled a knife when confronted by staff. He described the surrounding area as high-crime and said the violence there is happening too often…