7-Eleven clerk in Kansas City, Mo., slain while working final shift before moving to new job

Gunman kills KC 7-Eleven clerk working final shift

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Gurpreet Singh was working his final shift as a 7-Eleven clerk, before moving on next week to full-time job at a hospital, when he was gunned down during a robbery.

Police say they can’t explain why Singh, 35, was shot in the abdomen early Wednesday even after complying with the gunman’s instructions to hand over his register’s cash in a bag.

“He didn’t put up a struggle at all,” said homicide Detective Jeff Cowdrey. “He did what he was supposed to do and got shot for it.”

The encounter was recorded on the store’s surveillance cameras, and Kansas City police are working to identify the killer and two other people who were with him.

Singh, a divorced father of two whose family immigrated to the U.S. from India when he was in middle school, was to start a new job next week as a hospital kitchen supervisor. His brother, Gurbhushan Singh, said he could have skipped his final shifts at the convenience store — where he’d already been robbed less than a month earlier — but didn’t because he had promised to be there.

Singh called 911 about 1:10 a.m., after the gunman fled, then collapsed on the floor. He later died in surgery.

Gurbhushan Singh said his brother was proud about his new job and told his children, ages 7 and 9, 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.”

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

Information from: The Kansas City Star, www.kcstar.com