LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police say two people have been killed and three have been wounded in pre-dawn shootings at four Southern California 7-Eleven stores.
Authorities said Monday that at least three of the four shootings are believed to be linked to the same lone gunman.
The shootings appear to have occurred after predawn robberies or attempted robberies at the four stores on July 11 or 7/11.
It's a day when the national 7-Eleven brand is celebrating its 95th birthday by giving out free Slurpee drinks.
It wasn't immediately clear to investigators what prompted the shootings in the cities of Riverside, Santa Ana, Brea, and La Habra or why the violence happened on July 11.
Officials said the victim in the Riverside shooting was in grave condition, and investigators have not officially connected it to the others.
Investigators said the gunman robbed the clerk, brandished a gun, turned the weapon on a customer, shot them, and fled.
In the Santa Ana shooting, officers found a man dead in the parking lot with one bullet in his upper torso around 3:30 a.m.
Investigations believe the suspected gunman in the Santa Ana killing then traveled to Brea, where police found a 7-Eleven employee dead with a gunshot wound around 4:18 a.m.