Warner Robins convenience store clerk killed in armed robbery

WARNER ROBINS -- A 56-year-old convenience store clerk was fatally wounded during an armed robbery Thursday night.

Govinder Sinch Kaura, 56, of Warner Robins, was pronounced dead at the Lulu Food Mart at 1003 Elberta Road, according to Warner Robins police.

Police released surveillance pictures of the suspect pointing a firearm and also entering the store. He was gloved, masked and wearing all dark clothing.

Witnesses inside the store described him as a light-skinned black man, standing about 5 feet 11 inches tall with a slender build, police said.

Officers, who were dispatched to the store at 10:19 p.m., attempted life-saving measures until emergency medical service personnel arrived, according to a Warner Robins police news release.

The store is located next to Tanglewood Apartments, and crime scene investigators were taking photographs Friday of footprints left in a dirt path still damp from recent rain. The path runs parallel to the road from the store to the apartments.

Yellow crime scene tape extended around the path, across the parking lot and around a privacy fence on other side of the store.

Crime scene investigators also were dusting outside the store for fingerprints Friday. Much of the investigation earlier Friday had taken place inside the store.

Several apartment residents said they heard only police and other emergency sirens Thursday night and found out about the killing Friday through news reports and neighbors talking about the shooting. Many knew the store clerk by his first name but did not know anything more than he worked at the store with his brother.

Janice Thomas, of Warner Robins, often stops by Lulu’s after work to buy some chips or candy.

“It’s sad,” Thomas said. “It’s just a sad way to die.”

The last Warner Robins case involving a store where an employee was killed was in 2011 during a robbery outside of Marin Mexican Food Store, said Jennifer Parson, public information officer for Warner Robins police.

Jermontae Artez Moss of Warner Robins is serving a life sentence for the fatal shooting of Jose Marin, 43, who was Marin Mexican Food Store’s co-owner.

Marin was shot as he and one of his employees were unloading a crate of tortillas from a truck behind the store Sept. 22, 2011. Marin managed to fire off a shot as he fell to the ground, but he missed. Moss was 17 at the time of the shooting.

Warner Robins police detective Brett Rozier is investigating Thursday’s fatal shooting.

Anyone with any information related to the shooting or the suspect is asked to call Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 877-68-CRIME.

To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559.

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Warner Robins convenience store clerk killed in armed robbery ."