Tucson police are making a sweeping effort to find the people who killed a Quik Mart clerk early Saturday in a crime that escalated quickly from beer theft to murder.
The clerk, Christopher Cottle, 50, had worked for Quik Mart for 15 years and had been working as a Sun Tran bus driver for seven years, said his ex-wife, Janet Quitugua. He also spent 20 years in the Air Force.
Cottle was known as a hardworking man who would "give his last penny to somebody," Quitugua said.
Cottle had three children, ages 9, 29 and 34, Quitugua said. A son died two years ago from cystic fibrosis at age 24, she said. He had five grandchildren.
"He was the type of person that was very honest," she said. "He did not like dishonest people."
Police said he tried to stop three men from stealing beer from the Quik Mart at 3499 S. Wilmot Road not long after midnight early Saturday morning. The clerk was shot multiple times.
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Police released surveillance video images of the suspects Sunday, and they asked anyone with information to call 911 or 88-CRIME.
The police have formed a "homicide task force" of patrol officers, detectives, plainclothes personnel, crime scene specialists and crime analysts to try to find the killers, Lt. Vicki Reza said.
The task force was formed because the criminals are considered "extremely violent and unpredictable," Reza said.
"They were committing a misdemeanor and elevated it to a murder," she said.
The difference between a regular investigation and one that involves a task force is the number of law enforcement personnel involved, Reza said.
The last time the Tucson Police Department used a similar task force was in September 2005, when a person fired at a plainclothes Department of Public Safety officer who was on surveillance.
Quik Mart was fined $70,000 by the state Industrial Commission last year after one its employees, Richard Hardman, filed a complaint against the company because he felt it did not listen to his request to improve worker safety. Hardman filed the complaint after he was attacked by a hammer-swinging robber during his night shift.
He suffered severe head injuries and died in late January, a year and a half after the attack at the store at 4477 E. Fifth St.
An autopsy failed to determine the cause of death.
Hardman had been robbed 14 times over eight years, he said in an interview before his death.
A subsequent inspection found that "the employer was aware of previous violent attacks but failed to make any changes or modifications that would decrease the likelihood of attacks," wrote Melissa Jensen, health safety compliance officer for Arizona.
Attempts to reach Quik Mart officials and a Quik Mart attorney were unsuccessful Sunday.
The store where Cottle worked was open Sunday.
Quitugua was married to Cottle for 14 years before they divorced about 10 years ago, she said. She added that they had become good friends over the years because of their kids.
The couple had three children together, Quitugua said: Valarie Atkinson, 34; Shannon Nash, 29; and Christopher James Cottle, now deceased. Cottle's youngest child, a 9-year-old son named Dante, was by another woman, she said.
"I don't understand how somebody can take somebody's life over beer," Quitugua said.
