Intruder shot dead at store

Tienda Hispana held up a 3rd time

RALEIGH -- Last year, Jose Jiminez opened the Tienda Hispana Mi Barrio II store on Western Boulevard because he knew there were a lot of Hispanics in nearby neighborhoods.

Jiminez, 35, of Raleigh didn't think about the threat of armed robbers.

So far this year, the convenience store at 3913 Western Blvd., in a strip shopping center near Amedeo's Italian Restaurant, has been the site of three armed robberies. The latest took place Thursday night when Jiminez's uncle shot dead one of three robbers inside the store. Neither store employee was injured. No customers were in the store, police reported.

The other two bandits fled the store and have not been apprehended. The dead man has not been identified by police.

Jiminez said his uncle and a female employee were working when three men walked into the store just before 8:30 p.m. The first man who walked into the store stopped near a Good Humor ice cream bin near the front door. The last of the three men locked the door and walked to the front counter, where Jiminez's uncle was at the cash register.

Police say the men announced a robbery and two shots were fired. Jiminez said the men spoke Spanish, and one of them fired the first shot. Jiminez pointed to a bullet hole that chinked the brick wall behind the store counter. His uncle fired as well and struck one of the intruders. Jiminez said the man ran to a bathroom in the rear of the store. Then he came out of the bathroom, fell on the gray carpet beside several racks of clothes, and died.

In an interview Friday, Jiminez said he spent Friday cleaning blood from the floor where the man died.

Jim Sughrue, a Raleigh police spokesman, said Friday the newly opened store has been robbed two other times this year. The first occurred Jan. 25 when three men, two wearing ski masks, robbed the business. The store was hit again March 22 and was one of two Hispanic groceries robbed that evening.

"The Tienda Hispana was robbed [March 22] by two suspects at 8:20 p.m.," Sughrue said. "At 8:51 p.m. two suspects robbed the La Rancharita at 405 Carolina Pines Avenue. They might have been committed by the same suspects."

Police have not made any arrests in the previous robberies at Tienda Hispana, Sughrue said.

Although Jiminez has had misgivings since robbers have targeted his store three times, he still plans to expand his business. In addition to selling food, clothes, cosmetics and knickknacks, the store owner plans to open a butcher shop in the rear of the store, just across the room from where the intruder died Thursday night.

Police are urging anyone with information about the attempted robbery or the whereabouts of the suspects to call the Raleigh Police Department at 890-3555.

(News researcher Lamara Williams contributed to this report. )