Clerk Obeys Robber, Is Shot Anyway : Crime: Police are baffled as to why 7-Eleven employee is left in critical condition after handing over money without protest. Video is studied.

For no apparent reason, a gunman shot and critically wounded a convenience store clerk who had just handed over cash without protest, police said Tuesday.

Varinder Singh, 22, who started his overnight shift at a Harbor Boulevard 7-Eleven store two days earlier, was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest after the 11:05 p.m. robbery Monday, police and hospital officials said.

“You think you’re doing the right thing if you turn the money over,” said Santa Ana Police Department spokeswoman Maureen Haacker. “It doesn’t appear there was any kind of struggle or anything” that would have prompted the attacker to fire, Haacker said.

Police studied a video from a camera in the store, Haacker said, looking for clues that might lead them to the gunman.

The attacker was described as male, about 20 to 25 years of age and about 5 feet, 4 inches tall. He had black, collar-length hair and wore blue jeans, police said.

The gunman entered the 24-hour store in a mini-mall at 103 S. Harbor Blvd. and waved a handgun at three customers before turning to Singh at the front counter, police said.

The gunman demanded money and Singh handed over an undisclosed amount, witnesses told police. But before running from the store with the cash, the gunman shot Singh once in the chest.

Three customers and a second store employee who was standing about 30 feet from the counter were not injured, police and a company official said.

Paramedics took Singh to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he underwent emergency surgery, a hospital spokeswoman said. Police were trying to learn the man’s address, Haacker said.

The number of robberies in Santa Ana in which a firearm was used tripled to 791 between 1987 and 1991, the last year for which state statistics are available. Santa Ana police do not have statistics on the number of armed robberies in which someone is injured, Haacker said.

During the same five years, robberies that turned deadly in Orange County also rose, state Department of Justice figures show. In 1987, there were four robbery-related homicides countywide. In 1991, 22 people lost their lives during robberies in Orange County.

A 7-Eleven clerk on North Grand Avenue who withheld his name, asked: “What is the mentality of these people” who rob and then shoot someone without provocation? “What do these people think they are going to steal? $100?” he asked.

A manager at the Harbor Boulevard store, which was open for business Tuesday morning, referred all questions to the Brea district office of the Southland Corp., the parent company of 7-Eleven stores.

Clerks for the national convenience store chain are taught not to fight or chase armed robbers, said Kevin Eliason, an assistant manager who helps oversee programs to curb theft and crimes against employees and customers.

“You just don’t know what you’re dealing with,” he said. “It’s not worth dying over a six-pack of beer or the cash in the register.”

Eliason said Southland Corp. has held anti-theft programs for clerks since 1979 and has occasional, on-going programs with local police departments as well. Owners of each store are encouraged to have good lighting and to keep front windows clear of large advertisements that might block the view of the store clerk, Eliason said.