Man pumping gas at a Lehigh County Wawa is shot and killed

The district attorney said the shooter fled on foot and then took his own life.

• Michael Rubinkam/Associated Press
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(Upper Macungie Twp.) — A man opened fire at a convenience store in Pennsylvania early Wednesday, apparently at random, killing a truck driver who was pumping gas and wounding another man before taking his own life, officials said.

The man had first shot at a car on a highway several miles away before heading to the convenience store around 4:45 a.m., according to Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin. The woman in the car told authorities she didn’t realize her car had been hit with a bullet until she stopped at a Wawa store in Upper Macungie Township, outside Allentown. She was uninjured.

The shooter — who had driven to the same store — pulled up next to a Jeep in the parking lot and shot and wounded the driver, Martin said. He then shot and killed the truck driver before fleeing on foot and fatally shooting himself in the parking lot of a day care center about a quarter-mile away, Martin said. The day care was closed at the time.

Authorities said there was no apparent motive, nor any connection between the shooter and the victims. Martin said the shootings appeared to be “indiscriminate” and unrelated. Authorities believe the shooter and the woman he initially shot at wound up at the same Wawa by chance because the shooter had passed her on the highway.

A coroner identified the shooter as Za Uk Lian, 45, of South Whitehall Township. The coroner identified the truck driver as Ramon Ramirez, 31, of Allentown.