Police Link Killers of Grocer to Crime Ring : Robberies: A $25,000 reward is being offered. The four men are believed to be part of a group that has struck 20 other times in the Valley since November.

The killers of a Korean-American grocer shot to death during a robbery in Van Nuys last month are part of a ring involved in at least 20 other San Fernando Valley robberies and may be responsible for the slaying of a Maywood police officer last week, Los Angeles police said Monday.

Police and City Councilman Joel Wachs announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the four men who killed Lee Chul Kim on May 4.

The 49-year-old grocer was killed during a struggle after robbers ransacked the cash registers in Kim’s Woodley Market and came up empty. The killers fled without finding a bag containing $15,000 that Kim had picked up from the bank before the robbery in the 7500 block of Woodley Avenue.

“This was simply cold-blooded murder,” Wachs said in announcing the reward, the maximum the City Council can approve. “They have struck before and they could strike again.”

Detectives said they believe that the four men are part of a Salvadoran robbery ring that has struck 20 other times in the Valley since November. Police believe that the ring sends out members in groups of at least four to commit robberies.

The robbery targets are primarily small markets, liquor stores and bars. Police said the bar across the street from Kim’s store was robbed earlier this year by the group. Employees of two other markets have been shot and wounded, police said.

The descriptions of the robbers and their methods caused detectives on the Kim case to investigate whether the same group was involved in the slaying Friday of a Maywood police officer who was shot while responding to a silent burglar alarm at a small market.

Officer John A. Hoglund, 46, was shot when he pulled up in front of George’s Market in the 4000 block of 52nd Street as five men ran out after robbing the store. On Sunday, authorities arrested three Salvadoran nationals who investigators believe are part of a larger ring of thieves.

Los Angeles Police Detective John Edwards said he will compare details of the Maywood shooting with those of the Valley cases and determine if the men arrested match the descriptions of robbers in the Valley cases. He said a surveillance camera tape of a robbery at a Mexican restaurant in Pacoima earlier this year will also be compared to a tape of the Maywood robbery.

“It could be that these are different cells of the same group,” Edwards said. “There are similarities.”

In the Kim case, the victim had gone to the bank to make a withdrawal. Kim operated a check-cashing booth in his store and it was his Monday morning routine to make a large withdrawal of cash.

The four robbers were in the store when he returned, police said. When Kim opened the door to the check-cashing booth, one of the robbers followed him in. Police said Kim ran out of the booth through another door and into a freezer, dropping the money bag as he went.

Detective Steve Fisk said the robbers overlooked the money bag and demanded keys to the store’s cash registers from Kim.

“Meantime, they are practically stepping over the bag of money,” Fisk said.

When the robbers found the cash registers empty, they went to Kim again and a struggle began, during which Kim was shot. The robbers then ran from the store.

“Very seldom do you get bandits that are this ruthless,” Fisk said.