Cops: Driver Pumping Gas Killed in Random Shooting

Pennsylvania gunman took his own life, police say
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 21, 2021 2:56 PM CDT
Cops: Driver Pumping Gas Killed in Random Shooting
Officials gather at a Wawa convenience store and gas station in Breinigsville, Pa., Wednesday, April 21, 2021.   (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A man opened fire at a convenience store in Pennsylvania early Wednesday, apparently at random, killing a truck driver who was pumping gas and wounding another man before taking his own life, officials said. The man had first shot at a car on a highway several miles away before heading to the convenience store around 4:45am, according to Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin. The woman in the car told authorities she didn't realize her car had been hit with a bullet until she stopped at a Wawa store outside Allentown, the AP reports. She was uninjured. The shooter—who had driven to the same store—pulled up next to a Jeep in the parking lot and shot and wounded the driver, Martin said. He then shot and killed the truck driver before fleeing on foot and shooting himself in a parking lot a quarter-mile away, Martin said.

Authorities said there was no apparent motive, nor any connection between the shooter and the victims. Martin said the shootings appeared to be "indiscriminate" and unrelated. A coroner identified the shooter as Za Uk Lian, 45, of South Whitehall Township and the truck driver as Ramon Ramirez, 31, of Allentown. Ramirez was married with three children, according to Pete Dannecker, a vice president at the family-owned trucking company he worked for. "People who work with him said he was a great guy, did a great job, everybody liked him," Dannecker said. "The driver had nothing to do with this, just got caught up in somebody else’s issues." Officials said a Wawa employee who was taking out the trash heard the gunshots, ushered two customers inside the store and locked the door.

(More Pennsylvania stories.)

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