Two suspects arrested in string of fatal robberies at California 7-Eleven stores

Authorities said on Friday that two suspects have been arrested in a series of deadly robberies at southern California 7-Eleven convenience stores where two people were killed and three wounded.

Police have been seeking a masked gunman suspected of robbing six southern California stores.

A clerk, Matthew Hirsch, 40, was shot and killed at a Brea store, and Matthew Rule, 24, was gunned down in the parking lot of a Santa Ana store during a five-hour string of holdups.

Police in Ontario, Upland, Riverside and La Habra have said they think the 7-Eleven robberies there are linked to the Brea and Santa Ana holdups.

A customer was shot in the head and gravely wounded at a Riverside store, and two people, one of them a clerk, were shot in La Habra but were expected to survive.

Russell Browning was shot in the face as he sat in his car outside the La Habra store, he told Fox 11. Browning said he saw the suspect and the clerk come out of the store.

The Riverside shooting victim was identified by his family as Jason Harrell, 46. He was breathing on his own and was no longer in a coma, his brother David Makin told KNBC-TV earlier this week.

Both of the La Habra victims were released from a hospital on Wednesday, KNBC-TV reported.

The 7-Eleven convenience store chain on Wednesday offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the masked gunman. It was not immediately clear whether anyone had called police with tips that led to the two arrests.