Southern California prosecutors announced Monday they will charge a Los Angeles man suspected of allegedly committing a slew of murders and attempted murders during a robbery spree the week of July 11.
The Orange County District Attorney’s (DA) office will charge Malik Patt with three felony counts of murder with the special circumstance of multiple murder, two counts of attempted murder with the personal discharge of a firearm causing injury, three felony counts of robbery with an enhancement of personal use of a firearm and one felony count of carjacking while personally armed, according to the DA’s press release.
In addition to the felony charges, Patt will face “two additional special circumstance enhancements of murder in the commission of a robbery and three enhancements for the personal discharge of a firearm causing death,” the release noted.
SANTA ANA, Calif. – A 20-year-old Los Angeles man will be charged with three felony counts of special circumstances murder in connection with a robbery spree targeting convenience stores that left at least three dead and another three people wounded across several Southern…
— OCDA Todd Spitzer (@OCDAToddSpitzer) July 18, 2022
“This is a stone-cold serial killer who executed innocent people,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the statement. “Every time he walked into another donut shop or convenience store, the clerk behind the cash register had no idea the death and destruction that he had already left in his path – and that they could be his next target.”
At a Monday press conference, Spitzer told reporters that Patt’s alleged violent spree was the one of the “cruelest, most inhumane crimes [he’s] ever seen,” the Associated Press reported.
Patt started the robbery and murder spree July 9 by allegedly shooting a homeless man in the head outside a North Hills, Los Angeles County 7-Eleven, the DA’s office said. The unidentified homeless man died from his injuries, according to the DA.
Authorities accused Patt of robbing Yum Yum Donuts store in Santa Ana at gunpoint July 11 before allegedly shooting and killing Matthew Rule 20 minutes later at a 7-Eleven, according to the statement. The DA’s office stated that Rule was shot in the head when he tried to open the locked door of the convenience store that Patt was allegedly robbing.
Patt left the Santa Ana 7-Eleven and allegedly robbed a 7-Eleven clerk in Brea, California, at gunpoint 31 minutes later, according to the Orange County DA. Patt allegedly shot the 7-Eleven clerk, Matt Hirsch, in the head, killing him, according to the statement.
The Orange County prosecutors also accused Patt of allegedly shooting and injuring two more people after robbing a La Habra 7-Eleven and carjacking a California resident. (RELATED: 7-Eleven Recommends Los Angeles Locations Shut Down Because They Keep Getting Robbed)
Patt’s alleged accomplice, Jason Payne, has been charged with three felony counts of robbery and one felony count of attempted robbery, according to the DA’s office. If convicted, Payne faces almost ten years in state prison, the DA’s release said.
The men were arrested July 15 by the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)’s Orange County Violent Crime Task Force, according to the DA.
Brea Police Chief Adam Hawley thanked the Orange County DA’s office in the statement for “their diligence in filing the appropriate charges for the subjects in custody.”
“We will continue to work closely with them moving forward for the prosecution. Through these collaborative efforts with the District Attorney’s office and the other involved agencies, I believe we will bring justice to the victims and victims’ families,” Hawley said.