Suspect robbed and killed paint store owner in a minute, police say

Gregory Gill was working inside his Anchorage paint store early in the morning on Sunday, Sept. 10 — a habit of what his family said was his devotion to the business he ran with this nephew — when surveillance footage captured a man walking through a side door.

A single minute later, the 65-year-old had been shot in the head and the suspect was seen walking out of Aurora Paint Co. with a cash box and the keys to Gill's car, according to homicide charges filed against 27-year-old Randall Igou Friday.

Gill's nephew, the co-owner of Aurora Paint, arrived at the store Monday morning to find the lights off, the doors unlocked and his uncle dead inside.

The two had planned to meet for breakfast Sunday morning. But Gill never showed up, the nephew told police.

Igou was first called a "person of interest" in the killing and jailed on charges of stealing Gill's Kia Optima. He was charged with homicide on Friday.

Igou was set to be arraigned in Anchorage jail court Sunday on the murder charge but refused to be transported into the courtroom, according to court judicial services officers. He is already being held at the jail on a vehicle theft charge for allegedly stealing Gill's car. His arraignment has been rescheduled.

An affidavit by Anchorage Police Department Detective Ross Henikman in the homicide complaint against Igou offers a more detailed picture of what police say happened the morning of Sept. 10:

Surveillance footage from a nearby business captured Igou walking into the store through an open side door of Aurora Paint. Igou's right hand "immediately" went up "as if he is pointing a handgun," the affidavit said. The footage shows Igou walking out of the front door, holding the cash box in his hand, at 7:42 a.m. He was wearing a hoodie, dark pants, a backpack, "distinctive white shoes" and a mask or bandanna.

Police arrested Igou Monday, Sept. 11, after a chase that ended with Igou wading neck deep in East Anchorage's Cheney Lake. They found the cash box from Aurora Paint in the trunk of the stolen Kia, according to the criminal complaint.

When police arrested Igou, he "mentioned that he was high on methamphetamine," according to the affidavit. Police say he "on his own mentioned the cash box in the trunk, and noted that his fingerprints were probably on it," the criminal complaint said.

Gill's family described him as a lifelong Anchorage resident who devoted much of his time to his paint store and supporting the endeavors of his large, close-knit extended family.

Gill's death was one of two slayings of store owners in the neighborhood within days: On Tuesday, just a day after Gill's body was discovered, the owner of The Bullion Brothers gold and silver store and two others were killed less than a half-mile away.