The release expressed sadness for the loss of the two workers who would be “dearly missed.”
Police found the back door to the Dollar General Store at 4100 W. Stan Schlueter Loop in Killeen partially ajar at 8:23 a.m. Wednesday. The burglar alarm was sounding as an officer got out of her car with a K-9 patrol dog and went inside, said Carroll Smith, spokeswoman for the Killeen Police Department.
Ms. Smith said the officer found one of the women dead from gunshot wounds and a second seriously wounded.
Sheila Reed, 40, of Killeen was pronounced dead at 8:45 a.m. Gricelda P. Ramos, 28, of Killeen was airlifted to Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple where she was pronounced dead at 10:36 a.m.
The remains of both were sent to Dallas for autopsy.
Shopkeepers and small business owners across West Stan Schlueter Loop from the site of the murders said Thursday they are in a tense and nervous mood.
Most interviewed declined to give their names for fear of retribution from a killer or killers still on the loose.
Ashley Gaines said she heard the news on the radio Wednesday during the day.
“I thought to myself, ‘please God, don’t let that be the Dollar Store across from where I work,’” she said.
She said the thought that a brutal murder could happen so close by made her extremely nervous.
“I used to shop there every day,” Ms. Gaines said. “If they open that store again, I’ll feel uncomfortable shopping there unless they catch whoever did this.”
At one shop a clerk who declined to be named said she first heard of the murders when she came to work Thursday morning. She said the incident was shocking but she was not overly nervous.
“I’m not worried,” she said, “because God will help me through these things.”
A nurse at a clinic also declined to give her name.
“If there was more police presence - if police were more noticeable in this neighborhood, it would help us out here,” she said.
She said the area in the 4100 block of West Stan Schlueter is remote because it is at the edge of town.
The area has a rural, pastoral flavor of open pastures interspersed with residential subdivisions and commercial development.
“You really see more police in the central city,” she said.
On Judson Drive behind the Dollar General Store Karla Renfro said the unnerving incident was not characteristic of the area.
“It’s a new neighborhood and quiet,” she said.
Next door, Lourdes Arroyo said she was in shock because things of this nature never happen in her neighborhood.
She said she and her children didn’t hear any shots ring out.
“We were all sleeping,” she said.
Justice of the Peace Garland K. Potvin of Killeen said a preliminary autopsy report had not been returned by the medical examiner as of Thursday.
Ms. Smith said police have interviewed a number of people in securing leads to finding the person or persons who committed the murders.
She said anyone with information about the murders is asked to contact the Killeen Police Department at 501-8800 or Crime Stoppers at 526-8477.
hclark@temple-telegram.com
