Clerk’s Shots Hurt Suspect, Stop Holdup in Sepulveda

A liquor store clerk shot a masked, armed robber in the hip in Sepulveda on Thursday night, after the robber and an accomplice threatened the clerk’s girlfriend, Los Angeles police said.

Larry Burstein, 38, of Granada Hills said he fired three shots at the two men during a 10 p.m. robbery attempt at the Party Pantry Jr. liquor store on Parthenia Street, using a licensed handgun he keeps behind the counter.

A police spokesman said Burstein wounded Gordon Loncar, 21, who allegedly entered the store wearing a ski mask and brandishing a 11-inch hunting knife. While an accomplice watched, Loncar ordered Burstein to hand over $100 from the store’s cash register and the money the clerk had in his pockets, Burstein said.

Burstein said he shot at Loncar after Loncar asked Burstein’s girlfriend, who was in the store at the time, to hand over her purse.

‘Had to Do Something’

“I told him she didn’t have a purse, but he saw it behind the counter,” Burstein said. “He started to say threatening things, and I decided I had to do something.”

Burstein said it was the second robbery attempt in three weeks at the store.

Loncar was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and taken to the jail ward at the County-USC Medical Center, police Detective Rockey Kennedy said. A spokesman at the jail ward said Loncar was in satisfactory condition.

Kennedy said police were still looking for the accomplice, who ran out of the store when Burstein started shooting.