The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has released new details surrounding the Aug. 6 robbery attempt in Norwalk that turned deadly when the store owner shot one of the three suspects, all of whom are Northern California natives.
The robbery attempt was reported just before 9 a.m. on Aug. 6 at Classic Tobacco in the 10900 block of Firestone Boulevard, an LASD spokesperson confirmed to KTLA shortly after the foiled robbery attempt.
Upon arriving at the scene, the deputies found that the store owner had shot one of three suspects after they tried to rob him.
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“Homicide investigators learned the store owner was in the process of opening his business for the day when [the suspect] approached the front door of the business armed with a large canister of pepper spray and a handgun,” LASD said in a statement issued Sunday evening . “Two [other suspects] followed the first suspect at a distance.”
The first suspect, identified as Rodney Gaston, 25, of Oakland, pepper sprayed the store owner “near the threshold of the business’ front door,” LASD said, at which point the store owner fired one round from his own handgun, striking Gaston.