Police Seek Killer of Price Club Employee

Half a dozen detectives from the Inglewood Police homicide squad are looking for “a real dangerous guy” who shot and killed the assistant manager of a Price Club store in a street holdup that netted the killer and his accomplice only $15 in change.

The robbery occurred about 6:45 p.m. Saturday when two men armed with an ice pick and a gun approached assistant manager Randy James Terrian, 37, of Agoura Hills, and another male store employee. The two workers were walking outside the store on Century Boulevard across from Hollywood Park racetrack after closing time.

The unidentified employee was carrying a black cash box that the robbers apparently thought contained currency, Inglewood Police Sgt. Bill Thompson said. In fact, it contained only credit card receipts and $15 in coins.

When the men accosted them, Terrian apparently told the other store employee to “give them the box,” Thompson said. The employee handed over the box, but the robber with the gun shot Terrian anyway, hitting him once in the head. More shots were fired as the other employee fled, but he was not injured.

Terrian later died at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

“To kill somebody after they’ve given you what you want is just brutality,” Thompson said. “It means we’ve got a real dangerous guy out there.”

Thompson said the robbers probably didn’t realize how small their take was until later, when they opened the box.

Since the killing, Inglewood police have flooded the neighborhood with hundreds of flyers in English and Spanish seeking information on the incident and the two suspects. Thompson said he hopes the relatively large number of detectives assigned to the case will result in quick arrests and will reassure owners and customers of other businesses in the area.

“We don’t want other people and businesses down there to worry too much,” Thompson said. “This was a tragedy, but it was a random thing, the kind of thing that can happen anywhere in the entire city.”

Thompson said the Price Club has instituted more security measures, including more guards. A security guard was on duty when the killing took place, Thompson said, but was in another area. The store manager was not available for comment.

Thompson asked anyone with information about the killing to call the Inglewood Police Department’s anonymous 24-hour “Drop a Dime on Crime” hot line at (310) 412-8825, or they can call homicide detectives at (310) 412-5246.