7-Eleven clerk killed by gunman helped people
At first glance, Matt Hirsch might have struck an imposing figure: tattoos on his face and neck, his features worn by years of drug addiction, standing behind the counter of the 7-Eleven in Brea in the middle of the night.
Anyone who struck up a conversation with him, however, would have quickly found out how much Hirsch, 40, loved talking to people and learning about their problems.
Kristen Ewan was Hirsch's girlfriend. She described him as an “empath” who genuinely cared for the customers who came in during the late shift. At that hour, many of those customers were homeless.
“He didn't need to brew fresh coffee or start the oven at four in the morning for your pizza,” Ewan said. “But he did, because he knew how much a hot meal can mean when you're out on your luck, because he's been there.”
Hirsch was killed early Monday when a gunman burst into his store at Brea Boulevard and Lambert Road and shot him. That was just one stop during what appears to have been a string of attempted robberies at possibly as many as six 7-Eleven locations from Riverside to La Habra, over several hours.
Besides Hirsch, another man was killed in Santa Ana and three more were wounded, including two who were injured at a La Habra 7-Eleven.
Police on Monday said they believed the same person seen in security camera footage struck the Brea and La Habra locations. Later, police departments in Santa Ana, Riverside, Upland and Ontario all said they were looking into whether the same man hit stores in their cities that morning.
Working such late hours made Matt Hirsch's father, Jim, nervous. But his son would reassure him that he could handle himself.
“I never felt good about him working that night shift,” Jim Hirsch said. “One single person in there working alone at night. But he told me he was comfortable there. He knew how to do his job.”
Sitting in the backyard of his home in South Gate, Jim Hirsch looked over the notes he scribbled on the cover of a booklet Orange County social workers gave him with tips for navigating trauma.
“I don't know how to act,” Hirsch said. “I don't know what to say.”
He said his son had been addicted to drugs since his final year in high school. It took decades for him to turn his life around. But he did.
Getting a job at 7-Eleven showed him his son was figuring it out and making his way, Jim Hirsch said. They'd seen each other just two days before the shooting, when Matt visited to take his father to a doctor's appointment for his cancer treatments.
After the shooting, Jim Hirsch said he went to the Brea store. He met several workers from businesses in the same strip mall.
“They told me Matt was the nicest person they'd ever met,” he said.
Ewan said her boyfriend was creative. He had dreams of becoming a tattoo artist, but a medical issue caused him to lose stability in his hands.
She said even the shooter, if he had given her boyfriend a chance, would have found he was an attentive listener, willing to console loved ones and strangers alike.
“If that guy who shot him would have given him two words, he would have found out that Matt would have been there for him, whatever he might have been going through,” Ewan said.
Ewan said she wants the shooter to answer for his actions, but she said she's convinced Hirsch would have forgiven his killer.
“He had to be in pain to think this was OK,” Ewan said of the shooter.
Ewan said her boyfriend had a close bond with his German shepherd-pit bull mix, Moo.
“She knows,” Ewan said. “She has done nothing but sleep, and cry in her sleep. She doesn't even want food, not even ice cream.”