Wounded Store Owner Is Upgraded to Fair Condition

VENTURA —  As detectives continued their search for two gunmen in a deadly Friday afternoon market robbery, one of the survivors was taken off the critical list Saturday.

Mohan Singh, 42, co-owner of Central Market, was upgraded to fair condition after being shot in the chest, said an official at Ventura County Medical Center.

“He was really lucky,” nursing supervisor Pam Wells said. “He was hit in the chest but [the bullet] avoided all of the major organs.”

Meanwhile, Ventura Police Lt. Skip Young, who is supervising the team of investigators, expressed frustration over several dead-end tips and conflicting witness accounts of the getaway car.

“We are running down all the possible leads we can,” Young said Saturday night. “We don’t have any suspects yet and we don’t have anybody we are targeting.”

Two masked gunmen entered the market in the 500 block of North Ventura Avenue about 1 p.m. Friday, police said. They confronted three workers near a cash register and demanded money.

Before the victims had a chance to comply, both gunmen opened fire, killing grocery clerk Primitivo Alejandro Alvarez, 35, of Ventura and wounding Singh and his brother, Balbir Singh, 44, also of Ventura.

The gunmen fled without taking any money and were last seen driving away in what some witnesses described as a silver or gray coupe or sedan.

Alvarez, a married father of two daughters, 10 and 13, and a well-liked employee, died at the scene from a gunshot wound to the chest.

The slain cashier had several family members and friends throughout the city, including eight brothers and sisters. He lived with his family in an apartment off Ventura Avenue and had been in the area for more than a decade.

Nearly 200 people, including many family members, gathered Saturday afternoon near the spot where Alvarez collapsed and died. They quietly said prayers and left flowers and candles in his memory.

Balbir Singh, who co-owns the market with his brother, was treated for minor gunshot wounds at Ventura County Medical Center and released Friday.

Relatives of the two market owners mopped up the blood on the market floor Saturday afternoon and reopened. Young said detectives were canvassing the neighborhoods surrounding the store to find more witnesses.

Because the gunmen wore masks, detectives learned little from reviewing the store’s surveillance videotape, Young said. He declined to release a description of the suspects, saying authorities didn’t want to compromise the investigation.

All available detectives worked the case Saturday and were expected to do so again today.

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Times staff photographer Bryan Chan contributed to this report.