Man Arrested in 3 Killings at Tustin Store

A man recently fired from a Tustin auto parts store was arrested Thursday in connection with the execution-style killings of three employees of the store during a robbery, Tustin police said.

Gregory Allan Sturm, 21, of Tustin, was taken into custody in an 8 a.m. raid at his girlfriend’s house in Riverside. He was booked into Orange County Jail without bail on three counts of murder and robbery after extensive questioning, police said.

“We feel the motive was robbery to support a cocaine habit,” Tustin Police Chief William D. Franks said at a press conference Thursday night.

Franks said Sturm began working at the store when it opened about three months ago and was recently fired for “theft and inappropriate conduct.”

The three victims, bound and shot in the head, were found when the manager of the Super Shops auto parts store opened for business Monday. They were identified as Chad Chadwick, 22, of Orange, Darrell Esgar, 22, of Huntington Beach, and Russel B. Williams, 21, of Seal Beach. Police have said they believe they were killed shortly after the store closed Sunday.

Sturm knew the victims through having worked at the Super Shops store, according to Franks, but there apparently was “no animosity” between them.

Investigators were led to Sturm after an unidentified employee of the store told them that he had loaned his .38-caliber handgun to Sturm sometime before the killings, and that the weapon was returned Sunday night.

Although police believe Sturm acted alone, they said their investigation is continuing.

When he was arrested, Sturm allegedly was carrying some of the approximately $1,100 taken during the robbery, Franks said.

“It is our belief that (Sturm) was in flight at the time of arrest,” Frank said.

Sturm is scheduled to be arraigned today.

At the murder scene in Tustin, a new crew of workers was working Thursday to reopen the store.