Washington, March 19 (IANS) Gurpreet Singh, an Indian American working his final shift as a night clerk at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Kansas City, Missour, was gunned down during a robbery.
The store’s surveillance camera shows Gurpreet Singh, 35, who was looking forward to starting a new full-time job next week at a hospital, handed over the cash in a bag to the armed robber Wednesday night. The gunman took the bag and inexplicably fired a single shot into Singh’s abdomen before walking out the door, the Kansas City Star newspaper reported.

Singh dialled 911 about 1.10 a.m. and told police what happened. He collapsed on the floor and later died in surgery. He leaves behind two children, aged 7 and 9.

Police can’t explain why the gunman shot Singh. “He didn’t put up a struggle at all,” homicide Detective Jeff Cowdrey was quoted as saying. “He did what he was supposed to do and got shot for it.”

Video surveillance shows the gunman, a man standing next to him and a woman who stood near the store’s door. Police are trying to identify the two.

Singh, who went by the first name Tony, had only worked at the store for about a month, but Wednesday was the second time he had been robbed there and the seventh time the store had been robbed in 12 months.

His family immigrated to the United States from India while he was in middle school. Since graduating from high school, he had worked in a variety of positions at St. Joseph Health Centre, including the laundry room and radiology.

His brother, Gurbhushan Singh, said he could have skipped his final shifts at the convenience store, but didn’t because he had promised to be there.

Gurbhushan Singh said his brother was proud about his new job and told his children, he was going to be “the boss.”

Gurbhushan Singh told the children Wednesday that their father wasn’t coming home. “They know they’re never going to see him again,” he said. “That was really hard.”