Shopkeeper Killed in Robbery

When 51 year-old shopkeeper Rufina Hernandez was robbed at gunpoint inside her Georgia Avenue liquor store, she quickly handed over her cash. 

But they shot and killed her anyway.

Hernandez’s murder now has the Brightwood community in Northwest reeling because everyone here called her “Mamma.”

“She would look out for anyone,” says regular customer Renault Dyce. “If you were short of change, she would tell you, ‘next time.’ She was probably being helpful and nice, that’s shy they take advantage of her, whoever did this.”

Neighbors say Hernandez’s store, La Casa de Morata, was less of a liquor store and more of a gathering place.

But at 9pm Saturday night, police say two men entered the store, pulled a gun and demanded money.

"This is a pretty heinous crime,” says MPD Detective Sergeant John Johnson. She was, “complying and wasn't offering any type of resistance that we know of and the suspect shot her anyway."

Police are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the two suspects. The gunman is described as a medium-skinned black male, about 5’8” tall, weighing 160-200 pounds and between 30 and 40 years old. He was last seen wearing a flannel shirt and armed with a black handgun. The second suspect is a dark-skinned Hispanic male, also between 30 and 40 years old, about six feet tall, thin and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt.

Johnson says police did not find surveillance cameras inside the store. But the suspects were last seen running away on foot, so police hope they caught them on the closed circuit cameras located throughout the neighborhood.

Preston Cunningham owns the barbershop one door down from La Casa de Morata. "We were neighbors,” Cunningham says. “I pass by and call her ‘Mom.’ She call me ‘Mr. C.’"

As Cunningham finished trimming a customer’s hair, he told his next customer Michael Terry about Mamma.

“I was in there last night,” Terry answered. “Talking to her and her son.”

Terry walked to the window and stared, in shock, as Hernandez’s son came to the scene to speak with the police.

"Everybody knew her,” Terry explained. “Never an unpleasant word. That family treated everybody like family."

Terry says he now worries for the 75 year-old Cunningham.

But Cunningham says, after 51 years in this location, he’s learned to close up shop before it gets dark. Besides, he has a plan if someone tries to rob him.

“Run like hell and call the police.”

Detective Sgt. Johnson agrees. “Don’t offer any resistance to situations like this. Try to comply. Materialistic stuff can be replaced."

Because, in his 23 years on the force, Johnson says it’s a rare day when someone does follow that advice…and still ends up losing their life.