The Vancouver man accused of robbing and killing a clerk at a Sifton area convenience store before lighting the building on fire was a frequent customer of the store, according to court documents filed in the case.
Mitchell Heng, 21, admitted to police that he went to the Oasis Market early Sunday morning to rob Amy Marie Hooser, the 47-year-old supervisor, court records state.
Heng told detectives he followed Hooser to the back of the store and robbed her, taking $80 and a carton of cigarettes and then starting the fire at the business, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by detectives in support of the charges. He refused to tell investigators how Hooser was killed, the affidavit states.
Hooser’s body was found among the rubble of a fire Oasis Market convenience store at 3412 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd. after a three-alarm fire ripped through the four-unit Sifton Plaza retail complex early Sunday morning.