Employee shot, hurt in Tacoma after responding to burglary alarm at Mexican grocery
An employee at a Mexican grocery in Tacoma was shot and injured early Thursday morning when he responded to an alarm and interrupted a burglary at the business, according to police.
The shooting was reported just before 3 a.m. in the 6400 block of South Tacoma Way, according to a tweet from Tacoma Police Department. The employee was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
No arrests have been made. The business, Los Amigos, is a grocery store in a strip mall with an attached restaurant.
Police said burglars drove through the doors of the business, a technique that has been frequently used in recent break-ins in the Tacoma area. Police spokesperson Wendy Haddow said an owner or manager of the business called police after an alarm was tripped, then called back minutes later to report an employee had been shot. The employee lives nearby and went to see what was happening after he heard the alarm.
Haddow said the vehicle used to ram the business, a van, was reported stolen out of Seattle. She said police found it Thursday abandoned in the 7200 block of South Fife Street. She said detectives would seek a search warrant for it.
Sergio Pelayo, the owner of Los Amigos, said Thursday that this is the sixth time his business has been burglarized, and he thinks it’s been the same burglars each time. Pelayo said his employee was shot three times. It’s unclear how many people were involved in this burglary. Police said the suspects fled in a vehicle.
“It’s really scary,” Pelayo said. “I’m scared for my family, for me and for my employees.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2022 at 7:57 AM.
