1 Dead in Starbucks Shooting After Credit Card Declined

Drive-thru customer came inside, shot man, witnesses say
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 26, 2016 6:51 PM CDT
Cops: Man Shoots Up Starbucks After Credit Card Declined
Police escorts evacuated people from a strip mall's parking lot near Rainbow Blvd. in Las Vegas, Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016, after a shooting inside a Starbucks at a southwest valley strip mall.    (Chitose Suzuki)

A Starbucks customer described terrified people dropping to the floor and sobbing after a gunman parked his car and entered the Las Vegas store, fatally shooting a man inside, the AP reports. Customer Medin Gebrezgier told police and a television reporter that he saw the gunman, identified Monday by police as Pedro Jose Garcia, fire twice into the ceiling before shooting a man in the chest. Garcia entered the store after his payment card was declined at the drive-thru window, police said. "Terror, it was just terror. We were afraid," Gebrezgier told KVVU-TV. He described people crying and hitting the floor when shots were fired a little before 11:30am Sunday.

Garcia, 34, was jailed pending a court appearance on murder, robbery, burglary, and weapon charges following his arrest at the Starbucks in a commercial center several miles west of the Las Vegas Strip. Despite witness accounts that Garcia was unable to make a purchase, a motive for the shooting remained unclear, police Officer Larry Hadfield said. The victim wasn't identified as a coffee shop employee. "They're investigating whether there was any connection between Garcia and the victim," said Hadfield, a department spokesman. The name of the 41-year-old man who was pronounced dead at a hospital wasn't immediately made public by the Clark County coroner. (More shooting stories.)

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