When the robbers shoved a note at him, store clerk Simon Khalil threw it back. That’s when they shot him. The 35-year-old Syrian immigrant died hours later at California Hospital after being shot at point-blank range by an assailant wielding a black handgun. After throwing the note back at [the robbers], Khalil walked around the counter and confronted the men. One robber pulled a sawed-off shotgun from his waistband, and the other pulled a handgun and fired. –L.A. Times, Nov. 4, 2006