1 Suspect Tried to Claim Car : Police Arrest 2 in 7-Eleven Slaying

Los Angeles police arrested two men Friday in the shooting death of a clerk at a Van Nuys convenience store Wednesday.

Aries Yap, 20, of Sun Valley and Inthavong Phouvong, 19, who they said was a transient, were being held at Van Nuys Jail without bail Friday night.

Police said Shankar Roy, 38, of North Hollywood was shot once in the chest as he reached into a cash drawer at a 7-Eleven store to comply with a gunman’s demand for money. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Valley Hospital Medical Center in Van Nuys.

The gunman left without taking any money, police said.

Lt. L. Durrer said police got their break in the case when Yap walked into the Van Nuys police station at about 5 p.m. Friday to claim a car left at the scene of a Thursday robbery, which police also believe was committed by the pair.

Suspects Ran Away

Witnesses to the Thursday-afternoon robbery of an apartment manager’s office on the 7800 block of Woodman Avenue in Van Nuys gave police a description of a suspect matching that given by witnesses to the 7-Eleven killing, Durrer said. The suspects in the apartment robbery abandoned their car and ran away, he said.

Yap was arrested at the police station.

After the arrest, robbery detectives staked out a Thai restaurant “in the Hollywood area,” Durrer said, and arrested Phouvong there at about 7:40 p.m. Both men are Thai immigrants, he said.

Police declined to say which of the two is suspected of shooting Roy at the 7-Eleven at 16056 Sherman Way.

Durrer said police will present the case to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office on Wednesday.

The Southland Corp. of Dallas, Tex., which franchises 7-Eleven stores, offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and indictment in the shooting. A company spokesman said that, by not resisting the gunman’s demand, Roy was following the procedures he had been taught.

A fellow worker said Roy, an immigrant from India, sent part of his salary to New Delhi to support his wife and four children.

Roy lived with two nephews who also work at convenience stores in the San Fernando Valley, the co-worker said.