PBSO: Man kills co-worker after spat in Lake Worth gas station
LAKE WORTH BEACH — Abdessamad Ez Zahraoui stepped outside late Tuesday after coming to blows with a co-worker while they cleaned the Citgo Kwik Stop.
Seemingly calmer, the 42-year-old returned minutes later and leaned against the store counter, surveillance-camera footage from the gas station on 10th Avenue North showed.
That video also captured Roberto Portillo-Quijano pulling a gun from his waistband, pointing it across the counter and firing at least two shots into his coworker’s back.
The 60-year-old then stepped out from the counter, stood over Ez Zahraoui and fired a bullet into the younger man’s head.
Then Portillo-Quijano ran home.
The fatal scene played out in front of numerous witnesses, including the men’s boss, and was captured on the store’s camera.
Within hours Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigators had the gun and the confessed gunman in custody.
Portillo-Quijano was booked shortly before 7 a.m. into the Palm Beach County Jail on a murder charge. Hours later, a judge ordered that the native and citizen of El Salvador remain jailed without the possibility of posting bond.
Video from the gas station captured Portillo-Quijano mopping and cleaning the floor mats that evening while Ez Zahraoui was working on the ceiling tiles.
A floor mat hit a ceiling tile that was on the floor, causing it to fall over. The men approached each other, seemingly exchanged words and then began fighting, sheriff’s records state.
The store manager separated the men, and Ez Zahraoui stepped outside.
When he returned, Portillo-Quijano killed him, investigators said.
The manager said he hired Portillo-Quijano about five years ago and had worked with him nearly every day over that time. The manager was one of several people who saw Portillo-Quijano run toward his home about one block south of the gas station.
After obtaining a search warrant, deputies found Portillo-Quijano, the clothing he was wearing at the time of the shooting and the gun in his home on Boutwell Road.
According to sheriff’s records, he confessed to killing his coworker.
A telephone call to a number listed in sheriff’s records as Portillo-Quijano’s went unanswered Wednesday afternoon.
Staff writer Julius Whigham II contributed to this story.
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