Grocer Gunned Down In Tacoma Robbery

TACOMA - The owner of a neighborhood grocery store was shot to death last night in an apparent robbery.

Joung Nam Kim, 50, died at the scene after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, Tacoma Police spokesman Jim Mattheis said.

Two men entered the Min Grocery, 3124 Portland Ave., shortly after 7:30 p.m. They ransacked the mom-and-pop-style store and shot Kim, Mattheis said. The two robbers took money from the cash register, police said.

Police said the two men fled the store and ran down an alley, where they met a third person in a waiting car. Police think the vehicle may be a burgundy or maroon Nissan Sentra or Maxima.

Police were interviewing two witnesses who were in the building's storeroom at the time of the shooting. Other witnesses saw the men run from the store, Mattheis said.

The store was also the site of a 1988 shooting. In that incident Joung Kim's son, Min Kim, shot and wounded a man who robbed the store and held a gun to the head of Min Kim's mother, police

said.