Freddie Gee
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Freddie Gee |
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Triple murder
has police puzzled
Richard Gee desires no revenge on the person who shot and killed his older brother Wednesday night in a triple murder at their family's southside grocery store. "I don't want to say I want revenge, but I don't want this to happen to someone else," Gee said in the parking lot of the store where hours earlier his brother, uncle and a store employee were shot to death. Tucson police were called to El Grande Market, 805 E. 36th St., shortly after 10 p.m. when a neighborhood resident reported hearing what sounded like firecrackers. Within two minutes of the initial call, police reached the store. Inside, they found three men who had been shot during a robbery, investigators said. Police identified the victims as: Fred Gee, 45, the store manager; Zwan Wong, 75, Gee's uncle who also worked in the store; and Raymond F. Arriola, 32, who started working at the store within the last month. Gee and Wong were dead when police arrived. Arriola died as he was being rushed by ambulance to a hospital. Investigators said Arriola did not say anything before he died that would lead detectives closer to his killers. Tucson police questioned and then released four teen-agers last night. Late yesterday afternoon, investigators were led to two southside mobile home parks and brought in two youths, later released, for questioning in connection with the market murders, said Lt. Tony Daykin. Two other teens were picked up and were also being questioned late last night by Tucson Police homicide detectives at the department's southside substation. Daykin would not say where the other two were picked up. Daykin said detectives had brought the four in for questioning because they might "provide information or have information pertinent to the investigation." One youth was picked up at a mobile home park in the 1400 block of East Bilby Road and the other in an adjacent mobile home park in the 1400 block of East Mossman Road. Residents of the neighborhood said the four are teens who attend Desert View High School, 4101 E. Valencia Road. The motive for the murders puzzled investigators, and the killings angered many residents who said they grew up with the Gee family. "We have no idea why these people were killed," said Sgt. Charles Armijo (THS Class of 1965, by the way), who heads the Tucson police homicide unit. Investigators said there was no indication that the three victims struggled with the robbers before they were killed, nor was there evidence that they tried to escape. "I hope they find the guys that did this and shoot them, because that is what they deserve," said one resident who asked not to be identified. The Gee family has owned El Grande since Frank Gee, who died of cancer in 1985, opened the store more than 35 years ago. The store is the only one left of four that the family owned in various parts of the city. It remains open despite "slow" business because it was Frank Gee's favorite store, said his son Richard. He said the family will meet soon to decide whether to keep the store open. Its light blue walls are covered with spray-painted gang graffiti, and many of its windows are boarded up or covered with steel security bars. Despite its appearance, residents and police said the store did not have an extreme crime problem. Richard Gee said that in more than 35 years of business, the store had just two hold-ups, and police said there had not been a robbery there for nine years. Residents of the neighborhood, which is bordered by South Park Avenue and railroad tracks just east of the South Tucson city limits, said they had fond memories Fred Gee and his store employees. "They were good people. They always treated me nice when I went in there," said Janice O'Neil, a longtime resident. "He was fair to everyone," Cruz Fimbres said of Fred Gee. "A lot of people around here liked him." Many residents said that in tough financial times Gee offered credit to some of his customers, and often provided free bread and milk to the needy. "He was too nice to have something like this happen to him," said a tearful Olga Carrillo, who worked as a cashier at the store for nine years. And Zwan Wong, who moved here from China less than five years ago, was remembered by customers yesterday as a talkative and friendly man who never hesitated to buy candy or ice cream for children who walked into the store. Wong is survived by an adult son in China. His wife died soon after he moved to Tucson. Arriola had worked stocking the shelves and cleaning the store for less than a month. The yellow bicycle he rode to work remained locked to a steel post in front of the door until yesterday afternoon, when police removed it. Attempts to reach Arriola's family last night were unsuccessful. But former neighbors said that in the late 1980s Arriola was one of a handful of preachers who shouted daily sermons to students gathered on the University of Arizona mall. Initially police said one of the store's cash registers was missing, but yesterday investigators said one of the checkout lines was not equipped with a register. Police said they hope a description of a 1970s black Buick seen speeding out of the store parking lot Wednesday night helps find the killers. The car has a rose on the front license plate which is bordered with blinking lights, police said. The car also has tinted windows and large tires, and has been lowered. Robert Robles, who lives about 100 feet from the store, said he heard 10 gunshots before a dark-colored car sped by in front of his home. "I would say these guys were not shooting with a revolver," he said. "It made too much noise." Robles, 76, said he turned off his television about 10 Wednesday night and was sitting in bed staring at traffic through a window when he heard the shots. "When I heard the first two shots it sounded like a car backfired," said Robles, a World War II infantryman. "Boom, boom." He said three rapid shots followed, then a pause, and finally five more rounds were fired. Investigators would not say how many times the three men had been shot or what type of weapon was used. After the car sped out of the store parking lot it turned north on South Tyndall Avenue, then west on East 35th Street, police said. Autopsies of the three victims are scheduled today at the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office. The two men being sought are described only as black and Hispanic, both about 20 years old. Fred Gee graduated in 1965 from Tucson High School, then from the University of Arizona. He worked for the U.S. Air Force, stationed at many locations, before returning to Tucson and running the family store, friends and family said. He had nine brothers and sisters, many of them business owners in Tucson. Gee's father, who opened the store, immigrated to Tucson in 1929 from Canton, China, at the age of 11. The triple murder Wednesday night brought to 23 the number of homicides in Tucson so far this year. |
