Pittsburg police have arrested a 37-year-old man in Modesto who is suspected of killing a Pittsburg convenience store clerk late last month.
Detectives tracked down the homicide suspect after receiving a tip that he was hiding out in an apartment in Modesto. Working with the Modesto Police Department, they served a search warrant shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday, but the suspect refused to come out until after several hours of negotiating with Modesto Police’s crisis response unit, Pittsburg police said.
Gregory Rossignon was later brought back to Antioch and booked into Contra Costa County jail on murder charges, according to police.
Detectives said Abdul Raouf, 44, was working as a clerk on March 22 at a convenience store in the 1000 block of Power Avenue when Jessica Russo entered the store and got into a disagreement with another clerk. Shortly after the disagreement, Rossignon entered the store and shot Abdul for no apparent reason after which he and Russo fled, authorities said.
On March 29 Russo was located and arrested after police served a search warrant at a residence in the 2000 block of D Street in Antioch, but Rossignon was not found. The 34-year-old woman was booked into West County jail on the warrant and held on $1 million bail, according to a county records check.
A third man involved in the confrontation, a 43-year-old Pittsburg man detained at a Pittsburg home, was not listed in custody as of March 30.
Since the shooting, a GoFundMe account for Raouf has raised $78,998. A husband and father of five, the Pittsburg resident previously had worked for 10 years as a translator in Afghanistan for the U.S. Armed Forces, according to family members.
Anyone with information on the case may call Pittsburg police Detective Jonathan Elmore at 925-252-4875 or the department tip line at 925-252-4040.