More Join Hunt for Killer of Ice Cream Shop Owner : Crime: Laguna Beach inquiry is being coordinated with agencies throughout Orange, Los Angeles counties. Slain woman’s injured husband is said to be improving.

Police in jurisdictions around Orange and Los Angeles counties joined Laguna Beach investigators Thursday in searching for the suspect in the killing of a popular ice cream store owner during a botched robbery.

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Simindokht Roshdieh, 53, was fatally wounded Monday by a tattooed gunman who also shot her 63-year-old husband, Firooz, in the chest. The gunman is also wanted in connection with armed robberies earlier Monday at an ice cream store in Tustin, as well as a flower shop and a music store, both in Costa Mesa.

Police have circulated a videotape of the suspect taken at the Tustin ice cream store. An off-duty employee who was in a back room of the Laguna Beach store also provided police with a description of the man: a light-skinned Latino in his late teens to early 20s, 5 feet, 7 inches tall, with bushy eyebrows and a tear drop tattoo on his left cheek, and Old English-style writing tattooed on both sides and the back of his neck.

“We’re following up on leads, based on the video and the still photo made from the tape,” said Sgt. Lance Ishmael.

“We’re in contact with all Orange County agencies and L.A. County agencies that may have anything” in similar robberies, he added.

Ishmael said law enforcement agencies have been asked to scan computerized registries of tattoos.

The Laguna Beach Police Department’s entire investigative division, eight officers, are working on the case, and on Wednesday investigators from Costa Mesa and Tustin met with local officers.

“We devised a game plan,” Ishmael said. “They’re beating the bushes in their streets and we’re doing the same down here.”

A young woman laid a bouquet of flowers Thursday at the front door of the Roshdieh’s Baskin-Robbins store, at 247 Main St. The flowers carried a simple card reading “I love you Simi.”

When she approached the flower-strewn doorstep and sidewalk, she was embraced by another woman wearing an apron, an employee of the Italian restaurant next door.

The woman, who would not give her name, stared at the door and the bouquets, brushing away tears.

The Baskin-Robbins chain and the city of Laguna Beach have offered rewards totaling $15,000 for the arrest and conviction of the killer.

In one hour alone Thursday, the department’s hot line, (800) 527-3008, received 16 messages from people offering information.

Firooz Roshdieh was reported in improving condition in Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo on Thursday.