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SALT LAKE CITY — "It just makes no sense, no sense at all."
Salt Lake Police Sgt. Robin Heiden said she and others are stunned that a 7-Eleven clerk would be shot to death, apparently because of an argument over a pack of cigarettes. It's a tragedy, she said, for all parties involved.
About 1:20 a.m. Sunday, Jamie Blalack, 29, was working at a 7-Eleven, 1157 W. California Ave., when he got into an argument with Anthony William Cline, 30, over cigarettes, Heiden said.
"It was more of an argument over, like, the type of cigarettes," she said.
Eventually, after the two had gone "back and forth" at each other, Blalack refused to sell cigarettes to Cline, Heiden said.
As Cline was leaving the store, he told Blalack that "he was going to come back and shoot him," according to a Salt Lake County Jail report.
"Cline stated that he was mad at the clerk for refusing to sell him cigarettes," the arresting officer wrote.
Cline walked into the 7-Eleven parking lot, pulled out a gun and fired once from an undisclosed distance. The shot went through the store's glass window and struck Blalack in the head as he was behind the counter helping another customer, killing him instantly, Heiden said.
Investigators did not know if Cline fired his shot intending to hit and kill Blalack or if it was a shot aimed to scare him and he unintentionally hit him in the head.
This one is really, really rare. It was more of a dispute between the two (than a robbery).
–Salt Lake Police Sgt. Robin Heiden
"As far as his intention, that's going to be something the courts are going to have to decide," Heiden said.
After surveillance video from the 7-Eleven was released, police received numerous calls from the public that helped them identify and arrest Cline Sunday afternoon.
Cline has a relatively minor criminal history in Utah, according to state court records. The majority of his criminal history deals with misdemeanor drug or alcohol possession. In 2004, a felony charge of receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle was dismissed.
Salt Lake police say while there have been incidents in the past of convenience store and gas station clerks being assaulted during robberies or beer thefts, the shooting and killing of a clerk is unusual. What made Sunday's shooting even more unique is that it was an incident that did not involve a robbery.
"This one is really, really rare. It was more of a dispute between the two (than a robbery)," Heiden said.
The last fatal shooting of a convenience store clerk that officers could recall was the high-profile shooting of Kang Ho Lee, 24, on Sept. 6, 2001, at the Sunshine Market, 1845 S. 700 East. In that incident, Lee gave the armed gunman money without putting up any resistance, but was still shot in the chest and killed. The case went cold for police until arrests were made four years later.
