2 Killed, 2 Injured in 2 Robbery Tries

Two botched robberies led to gun battles in South Los Angeles and Long Beach on Tuesday that left a hardware store owner and his customer dead and a convenience store clerk in extremely critical condition, police said.

The first attack occurred at 1:20 p.m., when three men walked into Marce’s Hardware near 45th and Main streets in Los Angeles with guns drawn, police said. Store owner Claro Cortez, 44, pulled a gun and fought back, but he and a customer were fatally shot.

Police officers in a patrol car nearby heard the shots and arrived moments after the robbers had driven away.

Witnesses on the sidewalk directed officers to the suspects, who were arrested about a block away. One had suffered a shot in the leg.

Cortez and the unidentified customer died at County-USC Medical Center. The names of the suspects were not released.

“There were a lot of rounds,” said Police Det. Greg McKnight. “Given the confined space, it’s amazing more people weren’t hit.”

The second shooting occurred three hours later when a 23-year-old gunman walked into a convenience store in the 6200 block of Orange Avenue in North Long Beach and opened fire on a clerk, authorities said.

The clerk returned fire and wounded the suspect before being shot in the neck, said Long Beach Police Sgt. Paul LeBaron. The 53-year-old clerk was hospitalized in “extremely critical condition,” LeBaron said.

The gunman was arrested when he showed up at a nearby hospital. He is expected to survive, police said.