Three men kill N. Phila. neighborhood grocer

The killing scene inside Los Ingenitos, a small grocery in North Philadelphia, was particularly gruesome and bloody, police said.

And the death of 60-year-old owner Felix Rodriguez was "sheer terror," as one detective put it.

Police on Sunday continued to search for three men in what they say was a planned robbery that took a particularly horrific turn about 8 p.m. Saturday.

"The 60-year-old merchant was viciously taken away from his family," Detective Philip Nordo said. "This is one of these crimes in this city that cannot go unpunished or forgotten."

Nordo said Rodriguez was shot six times - including in the chest, neck, face, and groin - with a large-caliber handgun, adding that Rodriguez put up a struggle.

"This man's last remaining moments on Earth were sheer terror," Nordo said.

An employee who was held at gunpoint in the back of the store during the shooting chased the men as they fled, Nordo said.

He then returned to find his boss lying on the floor in a pool of blood. The employee, whose identity Nordo did not release, told police that Rodriguez uttered three final words: "Those damn delinquents."

Police said that the store had been robbed several times and that Rodriguez had planned to close down in a few months, as his wife and children had urged him to do.

Police are reviewing surveillance tapes. They described the killers as three males, ages 18 to 21. Police said they think all three were familiar with the store and its routine.

No money was reported taken.

About 100 neighbors and family members gathered outside the store in the 2400 block of North Ninth Street in mourning and outrage until early Sunday.

By late afternoon, the corner was empty, with only a few stuffed animals left as a memorial on the steps of the shuttered store, tattered crime-scene tape nearby.

Detectives searched a few buildings in the area, hoping to find something that would help them identify the culprits. "I'd like to find anything," Nordo said.

Family and friends planned to meet at the Rodriguez home to discuss funeral arrangements, including whether the body should be flown to Rodriguez's hometown in the Dominican Republic.

"He was a hardworking man," said Jose Joaquin Mota, founder of the Philadelphia Dominican Grocery Association, who planned to go to the family's home to help with the arrangements.

Like most Dominican grocers, Rodriguez kept his store open seven days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day. "We are in neighborhoods where the big corporations don't want to go," Mota said.

But for Father's Day, Rodriguez planned to close the store early and celebrate.

"Then three guys have to shoot him in the mouth and chest. Unbelievable," Mota said.

Mark Righter, who works at the Indo-American Mini-Mart a block away, said he wasn't surprised to hear that three men were wanted.

He had befriended a former employee of Los Ingenitos who quit because, Righter said, the three men kept coming into the store and robbing it. "Anytime those three guys come into the store, there's always a problem," Righter said the man told him.

Three blocks from Los Ingenitos, Jose Peralta, 42, manned the cash register at his family's grocery, Rodriguez Market (unrelated to the victim). "We are not secure in this area," he said.

What particularly worries him is that he sometimes brings in his children to help: What if something like that happens while they are in the store?

"We come here working to do the best we can for the family and for the neighborhood," he said. "Sometimes when they come without food and without money, we give them money for groceries."

The Dominican Grocers Association was formed shortly after Jose Martinez was killed in the 1990s at a store at 12th Street and Indiana Avenue. The current association chief, Danil Burgos, is Martinez's nephew.

"Crime goes up when the economy goes down," Burgos said. "We're living through some trying times."

Burgos said he doubted there was any racial motivation to the botched robbery.

"It's not a racial crime," he said, "it's an economic one."

Los Ingenitos is near the intersection of Germantown Avenue and York and Ninth Streets.

Across the street are an elementary school and recreation center, where two men, who refused to give their names, explained what happens.

"They want money. They're hungry. It's hot," one said.

Anyone with information about the shooting is encouraged to call the Homicide Division at 215-686-3334.