Racial Animosity Emerges As Motive In 7-Eleven Shooting Spree: Police

LOS ANGELES, CA — A 21-year-old man charged in a crime spree that left three people dead in a string of convenience store and fast food robberies across the Southland referred to some of the victims as "white devils" during his police interrogation, according to evidence shown in the defendant's preliminary hearing Wednesday.

Malik Donyae Patt is charged with three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, three counts of robbery and a count of carjacking while armed. The charges against Patt include special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder in the commission of a robbery.

The case also includes various sentencing enhancements for personal use or discharge of a handgun.

Gus Moroyoqui, when he was a detective for Santa Ana police last year, interviewed Patt about the July 11 shootings and robberies. Moroyoqui is an Orange County District Attorney's Office investigator now and testified how he reviewed store surveillance video after he was dispatched to the killing of 24- year-old Matthew Rul at 302 E. 17th St.

Initially, Patt is seen during questioning denying knowing anything about the shootings as Moroyoqui showed him crime scene photos.

"I don't know nothing about no robbery," Patt said. "I don't know nothing about what happened at the doughnut shop."

At one point he dismissively flipped one of the photos onto the floor. But he was shaken when the detective said he showed it to a family member of the suspect.

Patt mumbled "death penalty?" before insisting that co-defendant Jason Lamont Payne was not involved.

"Keep my uncle out of this. He had nothing to do with this," Patt said, referring to Payne, who was a friend and not related to Patt. Payne pleaded guilty to four felony counts of robbery with sentencing enhancements for using a gun and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Patt asked to be housed alone in a jail cell, saying, "I'd rather be alone."

Patt did not hurt the clerk at a Yum Yum Donuts shop at 2441 N. Tustin St. in Santa Ana because he appeared to be of Indian descent, he said. He acknowledged that he put his arm around the clerk at one point as he stole $200 from the cash drawer and another $200 from a safe because he wanted him to know he wasn't in danger, he said.

"That's my people," he said of the clerk's ethnicity.

When he was asked why he shot Rule, Patt noted he was white

When asked about shooting a victim at a 7-Eleven store in Brea, Patt said he was "(expletive)-talking... He said something. I don't know."

As for the two victims shot in a 7-Eleven in La Habra that night, Patt said, "I don't remember." He said he recalled shooting through the passenger side window of a vehicle.

When he was asked about a victim of a shooting earlier that night at a 7-Eleven store in Riverside, Patt said, "That devil?"

When pressed on whether race motivated him, Patt said, "The white man is the devil."

At one point during questioning, Patt denied that the suspect seen in the surveillance video photos was him.

"That ain't me," he said, adding, "Malik Patt wouldn't have thought of this."

When Moroyoqui asked Patt, "Well, what's his name," pointing to the suspect photo, Patt did not respond.

The crime spree allegedly began July 9, 2022, with the killing of a homeless man in the 16100 block of Parthenia Street, near Woodley Avenue, in North Hills. That killing happened about 200 yards from a 7-Eleven store that was robbed later that day.

Patt acknowledged during questioning he was aware of the news coverage of the shootings and said he killed "that homeless man up in North Hollywood," according to the video shown in court.

Authorities said the 7-Eleven crime spree occurred July 11 -- or 7-11 - - beginning in Ontario. Police said just after midnight, the 7-Eleven at 636 N. Vine Ave. was robbed. The suspect held up the store with a handgun, but no shots were fired and no one was injured.

At 1:35 a.m., the 7-Eleven store at 2410 W. Arrow Route in Upland was robbed, police said.

At 1:50 a.m., the 7-Eleven store at 5102 La Sierra Ave. in Riverside was robbed by a gunman. That robbery escalated, with the suspect shooting a customer, who was hospitalized.

Minutes after 3 a.m. July 11, the Yum Yum Donuts shop at 2441 N. Tustin St. in Santa Ana was robbed, police said. About 20 minutes later, Rule of Santa Ana was fatally shot outside the 7-Eleven store at 302 E. 17th St. in Santa Ana.

Officers found Rule in the parking lot with a gunshot wound to the upper body, Santa Ana police said. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

Santa Ana Police Department Chief David Valentin said last year that Rule was not the primary target of the shooter. The gunman was targeting someone else, but Rule "stepped in" to "redirect" the robber and was shot, Valentin said.

Brea police said they responded at 4:17 a.m. to the 7-Eleven store at 109 W. Lambert Road and found a male store clerk fatally shot in what officers determined to be a robbery. The clerk was later identified as 40-year-old Matthew Hirsch, who died at the scene, police said.

About a half-hour later, the 7-Eleven store at 381 E. Whittier Blvd. in La Habra was robbed, and two people were shot, according to Sgt. Eric Roy of the La Habra Police Department. Both victims were taken to a hospital and survived. Police said the victims were a clerk and a customer.

Based on surveillance images, police said they were able to link the same suspect to all of the heists.

The robberies that occurred in Ontario and Upland will be prosecuted in San Bernardino County.

By PAUL ANDERSON, City News Service