Robbers storm La Habra store, shoot the 2 owners; assailants flee

Two brothers operating a La Habra liquor market were shot and an employee pistol whipped Friday when five robbers wearing baseball caps and bandanas burst into the store and opened fire, strewing money all over the floor, authorities said.

Lal Singh, 38, was in critical condition at UCI Medical Center in Orange while his brother, Kuljinder Singh, 30, was in stable condition at County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, authorities said.

The employee, Manjinder Singh, 32, who police say is not related, was being treated at another hospital for minor cuts to his head.

“There was money on the floor so it’s hard to know how much they got,” Cindy Knapp, a spokeswoman for the La Habra Police Department, said of the robbery at the Bajwa Liquor Market in the 2000 block of West Whittier Boulevard.

Police said reports of shots fired at the store began coming in shortly after 2:15 p.m.

Officers found the two brothers on the ground and the third man still standing with the cash all over the floor. One of the brothers had been shot at least twice in the abdomen and the other once in the left hip, said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Jim Kline, who also responded to the scene.

It was not immediately clear which brother had been shot twice.

A woman working at a construction company in the same plaza, who declined to give her name, said she heard one loud shot, which she thought was a firecracker or the backfire from a car. She said she looked out the window and saw a man running through the parking lot toward nearby Lindauer Drive as a small bright blue car with at least two men inside took off in the same direction.

The woman said she didn’t realize what had happened until police cars arrived.

Police described the five alleged assailants as Latinos in their early-to-mid-30s wearing white T-shirts, dark Dickey-style pants, baseball caps and bandanas.

*

david.haldane@latimes.com

ashley.powers@latimes.com