Convenience Store Owner Shot During Failed Holdup

The owner of a Lancaster convenience store was in critical condition Sunday night after being shot during an attempted holdup at his store. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were still searching for the three men who had tried to rob him.

The three assailants, described by victim Fidel Maida only as black adults dressed in similar black coats, entered the Superstore #1 in the 45000 block of Beech Avenue shortly after its 7 a.m. opening, authorities said.

Maida, 35, told investigators the men demanded all the money from the cash register. When Maida refused to cooperate, one of the men shot at him twice with a .45-caliber handgun, hitting him in the stomach, authorities said.

As the three men fled, Maida reached behind the counter for a .38-caliber handgun and fired four times, hitting some items in his store, said L.A. County Sheriff’s Sgt. Darrel Brown.

As Maida was taken by helicopter to UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, deputies set up a half-mile containment area around the store to search for the suspects, who did not appear to have a vehicle.

“Unfortunately, the efforts of our containment proved fruitless,” Brown said. He did not know whether Maida’s store had a surveillance camera that might have recorded the incident.

At the time of the robbery attempt, no other employees or customers were in the store, which is next to a laundermat and near a residential neighborhood.

The store is a few blocks from the Lancaster sheriff’s station.

Doctors operated on Maida for several hours Sunday morning, a hospital spokeswoman said.