Liquor Store Owner's Killer Still Loose

WASHINGTON, D.C. - People gathered outside a D.C. liquor store, leaving flowers and notes, still in disbelief over the robbery and murder of the store's owner this weekend. On Monday, police fanned out across the neighborhood trying to track leads in the case.

Customers say Rufina Hernandez, the 51-year-old store owner, was a nice lady. If you didn't have enough money, she'd let you pay later. That's why her murder during an armed robbery has so many people puzzled.

While police canvassed the neighborhood handing out flyers, people stared at her photo on the paper, asking themselves why someone would kill her. Up and down the street, one time customers helped pass out flyers, too. For people here, Rufina Hernandez wasn't just a shop owner, she was "Mamma."

Across the street at a used car dealership, Oyin Houssa was at a loss for words. The type of person who does this, she said, is "a person with no heart. I don't know what to say," Houssa said.

On Saturday night around 9:00 p.m., two armed robbers showed up at La Casa Morata on Georgia Avenue Northwest. Police say Hernandez gave them the money and they still shot her multiple times. She was hit in the face and neck, and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The two men ran away, leading police to believe the robbers may be from the surrounding neighborhood.

"To me it's quite obvious she knew them-- for someone to viscously murder a person. They didn't want her to talk," suggested George Davis, a one-time customer and neighbor who was handing out reward flyers.

Outside the store, people left flowers, notes and candles with their condolences. Customers say the store had security cameras and protective glass, which was recently added.

"They didn't have the protective stuff that they have in there now, but I guess after a while they got it to feel safe," said Erica, a customer who only gave her first name. She signed a card saying "in loving memory" and put it back on the store's front wall.

But the glass didn't offer a lot of protection. It has a window size opening in it, big enough to put a gun through if Hernandez was behind the glass. As for the security cameras, police aren't saying if the cameras were working.

Police are also checking a closed-circuit crime camera a few blocks away on Kennedy Street. The robbers were last seen headed that direction, but police say the camera rotates and may not have captured them.

Customers say Hernandez lost her husband more than a year ago. The widow recently told one customer she would see her late husband again soon. That conversation now haunts him.

"I said, oh my God, she knew. She was getting ready to meet her husband. Very sad," said Hector Torres who came by the store to pay his respects.

Police are handing out flyers in both English and Spanish offering a $25,000 reward in the case.

Those who knew Hernandez's generosity can't understand why anyone would shoot her. One customer after another said that if someone needed money she would have given it to them. They didn't need to rob her.