ANAHEIM : Robbery Possible Motive in Slaying

Homicide detectives said Monday that robbery may have been a motive in the shooting death of an Anaheim grocery store owner who was gunned down in his store last week.

Eugenio Enrique Gonzales, 48, of Downey, was fatally shot Friday afternoon when one of two gunmen opened fire in Ibero America Market at 327 S. Lemon St., Police Lt. John Cross said.

Detectives have been interviewing witnesses and family members for the past three days and do not believe that the killing was gang- or drug-related, Cross said.

“We’ve been leaning toward robbery (as a motive) because we don’t have any indication that it was anything else,” Cross said.

He said that Gonzales, his butcher and a customer were in the store when two men entered and ordered everyone to lie on the floor.

Gonzales was sitting on the floor when one of the gunmen began firing. A single bullet struck Gonzales in the upper body, Cross said. He was pronounced dead a short time later at UCI Medical Center in Orange. Police investigators do not know why the gunman opened fire, Cross said.

After the shooting, the gunmen fled in a Nissan auto, which was parked at the curb with a getaway driver inside.

As the car took off, witnesses told police that two other vehicles idling in the store parking lot followed it, Cross said. It was believed that as many as six men may have been involved in the incident.

Police do not believe the men were from the neighborhood or knew Gonzales, a Cuban immigrant who has owned the grocery store for 17 years, Cross said.

“We’re still talking to people in the neighborhood and the family to make some sense out of this,” Cross said.