HOUSTON – A Chevron store clerk was beaten to death in a brazen robbery across the street from an HPD substation Wednesday night, investigators said.
It happened around 8:30 p.m. at a gas station at Fondren and West Bellfort.
Police said the suspect, identified as Tony Lee Mayfield, 26, entered the store and asked the clerk for assistance with a lotto ticket. Mayfield lured the clerk out from behind the counter and then forced him into the restroom, where the murder occurred.
Investigators said the clerk was brutally beaten, and it appeared his head was slammed against the tile multiple times. They also found a broken plunger and a pin nearby, which may have been used as weapons.
"It was rather gruesome in the bathroom where he was killed. A lot of blood," HPD Sgt. Thomas Biggs said.
After the killing, police said Mayfield left the bathroom, changed his shirt and loitered in the store for 22 minutes, trying to convince customers to leave.
It was all caught on camera.
"For a portion of that time he was hiding in the bathroom with the body. For another portion of that time he was actually out with the customers trying to convince them to leave, it appears from the video," Biggs said.
Once Mayfield got the customers out of the store, investigators said he took all the money from the register, grabbed some cigarettes and fled on foot.
A woman who saw the blood and witnessed the suspect’s escape flagged down a police officer at the substation across the street.
That officer was able to catch up with suspect and take him into custody.
Police said he dropped the cash and cigarettes as he was running from the officer.
Mayfield is charged with capital murder.
"There were eight cameras in the store, and everything except the actual killing is on videotape – him entering the store, luring the clerk back, everything. So we have a very good case," Biggs said.
The identity of the victim has not been released, but police said he was 45 years old.
