Man dies after D.C. store robbery

July 11, 2014
Oh Soon-il died Tuesday following an armed robbery at his D.C. grocery store.

Oh Soon-il died Tuesday following an armed robbery at his D.C. grocery store.

A 76-year-old grocery store owner died Tuesday due to a head trauma left by armed robbers at his Washington, D.C. store on July 4.

Oh Soon-il and his wife, Oh Soonai, 66, ran the store together.

Two men entered the store around 5 p.m. demanding money and hit both owners on the head with guns before taking $3,000 and fleeing the scene.

Police arrived at the scene at 5:19 p.m. and found Oh Soon-il knocked to the floor with a severe head injury. He later died at the hospital, while Oh Soonai was treated for minor injuries and released.

The video footage of the attack showed one of the robbers hitting Oh Soon-il near the back of the store while the other robber threatened his wife with a gun.

“At the time, there was no one else but me and my husband,” Oh Soonai said. “The robbers came in demanding money, and when the cash register didn’t open like they wanted, they hit us.”

She said they were wearing masks and that she couldn’t see their faces.

According to D.C. police, the robbers, described as two black males about 17 or 18 years old, drove away in a stolen black Jeep Cherokee.

Oh Soon-il was known as “Kind Papa” in the neighborhood and had run the store for 20 years with his wife.