The yellow police tape was taken down, and a few shoppers ventured into a Palm Desert Toys R Us this morning, a day after two gunmen shot each other dead in the store, on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
An armed security guard stood watch outside the store, and another was inside the day after Black Friday. Sales clerks greeted customers but also kept a wary watch. A police car patrolled the parking lot.
The dead men were identified this morning by Riverside County Sheriff's officials as Alejandro Moreno, 39, of Desert Hot Springs and Juan Meza, 28, of Cathedral City. Two handguns were recovered at the scene.
The shooting occurred about 11:30 a.m. Friday after two women got into a fight. Sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez said no one was arrested. He would not identify the women and said their dispute was not part of the investigation.
When the women started arguing, witnesses said, the two men pulled out handguns and ran down the store aisles shooting at one another, witnesses said. Frantic shoppers either dropped to the floor or stormed out of the store.
"These guys ran into each other, they squared off against each other, they killed each other," said Sheriff's Capt. Daniel Wilham. "It's a miracle that these were the only two people killed, given it was a crowded toy store."
Joan Barrick, 40, of Desert Hot Springs said she was buying a Barbie Jeep for her daughter when the fight broke out. She hid behind a stack of DVDs and recited the Lord's Prayer. "If I'm going to die, I need to make peace," she said. "A lot of people were crying. I was crying. We were all very, very scared."
As the two men ran shooting through the aisles, shoppers dumped their purchases. LaToya Jenkins, 20, had already bought a remote-control bike. She dropped it and ran. Others left behind shopping carts full of the bargain-priced toys they had come in search of.
Several witnesses saw the gunmen clearly. Some cried out warnings: "He has a gun!" and "¡Pistola! ¡Pistola!" Barrick was so close she could see a smoking gun.
"This is horrible," said a shaken Sara Frahm, 25. "I'm never shopping on Black Friday again."
Clarisa Valerio, 45, of Thermal said that when one of the men first brandished his gun, she heard him threaten to kill the other. She didn't believe it was real. "Since we were in a toy store, I thought it was a toy gun," Valerio said in Spanish. "My husband pushed me and said: 'Let's go. Didn't you hear what he said?' "
