Employee Shot During Break-In

A tax service employee was shot twice by robbers Tuesday night for failing to comply with their orders, authorities said.

Two armed men ran into Lupita Diaz’s tax service in the 21000 block of Sherman Way about 8 p.m. and ordered employees and customers to a back room, where they were told in Spanish to lie face down, said Sgt. Paul Sciarrillo of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“One employee said he didn’t speak Spanish and didn’t understand what they were saying, so they told him in English, ‘Do you want to die?’ ” Diaz said.

She said the employee was taken out of the back room by the two men and was shot in the arm and leg because he passively resisted. The wounded man, whose name was not made public, was in serious condition at West Valley Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Police said the two robbers fled empty-handed. “They thought we had money but we don’t have a lot of cash,” Diaz said.