Six men have been arrested in connection with the July 16 killing of a liquor-store owner in Fullerton and the holdups of 15 other stores that month, Baltimore County police said Thursday.
A joint probe by county and Baltimore city detectives concluded that a string of armed robberies and attempted robberies between July 4 and July 30 was connected to the half-dozen suspects.
Four of the men face charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy. They are Gregory Jerome Horne, 23; Keith Joshua Johnson Jr., 24; Abayomi Nikomo McKenzie, 25; and Tavon Anton Shuler, 30.
The four are being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center, police say.
The two other men in custody were expected to be charged soon, said Bill Toohey, a county police spokesman. One of those two suspects is believed to have fired the shot that killed Joon Am Kang, 57, during an apparent robbery attempt in his store, Putty Hill Liquors, in the 7900 block of Belair Road.
In a surveillance video, one of two men who entered the store can be seen pointing a handgun at Kang and firing at his chest. Kang slumped to the floor, and his assailants ran off.
In the video, detectives recognized the pair as members of a group they believed were behind several other robberies in the county and city.
An investigation of the attempted robbery of a Hamilton Avenue convenience store on July 30 led police to arrest two suspects. During questioning, the identities of the other four emerged.
Some of the suspects admitted to their involvement in the robberies, police said. The detectives learned that all six men took part in planning the holdups and sharing the proceeds.
The first-degree murder counts were filed against all four of the suspects charged so far because they were "part of a conspiracy, a common scheme," Toohey said. "They are all linked to the homicide."
In August, Baltimore County police officials offered a $4,000 reward to anyone who provided information leading to the arrest and conviction of Kang's killers. Half the money was to have come from Metro Crime Stoppers and half from the Korean-American Grocers and Licensed Beverage Association of Maryland.
It was not clear Thursday whether anyone was eligible for the reward, a decision that Toohey said awaited a "review of information that came in and how relevant it was to the arrests."
Kang's employees and fellow merchants in the Putty Hill Plaza Shopping Center spoke about him with affection and respect. Kang, a native of South Korea who had owned the store for 15 years, was alone when the two men burst in on the night he died.
He left a wife, Tae, and a 30-year-old son.
