If there’s one thing that’s apparent in the mysterious shooting of a 7-Eleven clerk, it’s that he will be missed.
Bunches of flowers, intermixed with notes and balloons that say “thank you” and “you’ll be missed,” decorate the corner of 165th Street and Fifth Avenue NE, next to the 7-Eleven store where Ho Nhat Ton, a clerk, was killed.
“Literally hundreds of people over the last few days have been coming to the store to tell us how much they appreciated him, how friendly he was,” said Ron Conlin, loss prevention manager for 7-Eleven Inc. “He made a difference in the neighborhood.”
Officers responded to the 7-Eleven shortly after 4 a.m. on Dec. 10, when a customer reported that a man, who was apparently the clerk, was dead from a gunshot wound.
Responding to the scene, officers found a 45-year-old man outside the store on the sidewalk that runs along the front of the building adjacent to the store, said Sgt. John Urquhart, King County Sheriff’s spokesman. The man was not on the public sidewalk next to the street.
There are no suspects or motives for the killing at this point, said Urquhart. Officers haven’t ruled out the possibility of a robbery, he said, and it’s not yet clear why the victim was found outside the store. One theory is that suspects confronted Ton inside the store and he followed them outside, he said.
“He was the only one working,” said Urquhart. “To say he was on break is jumping to conclusions.”
Investigators with the Major Crimes Unit are handling the investigation. They are assessing video-surveillance tapes from the store and also have collected forensic evidence at the scene and spoken with various people.
Anytime there is a crisis of this magnitude in the “7-Eleven family,” everyone takes it hard, Conlin said. The corporation has provided counseling sessions for employees and staff from other stores have taken over some shifts.
Of Vietnamese decent, Ton lived in south Everett with his brother and elderly father. He worked the night shift at his request as it was the shift he enjoyed working most, said Conlin. Ton had worked for both 7-Eleven corporate and franchise stores for more than a decade and worked at the Shoreline location for about two years. His shift usually ended at 7 a.m. in the morning.
“I did know him,” said Conlin. “He had a very outspoken personality and spoke broken English, but no one had a problem understanding him.”
When customers walked into the store, Ton always smiled, nodded and would reach out to shake hands, said Conlin. He treated everybody with respect.
“We definitely want to catch this guy for this senseless act with no provocation,” said Conlin. “It’s a mystery at this point as to why someone would have taken his life.”
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